MVHS was awash with emotion on Wednesday after Donald J. Trump was announced the winner of the 2024 presidential election in the early hours of the morning. Teachers invited questions, passing periods were filled with conversation, and social media was flooded with calls for action. Many students expressed disappointment, and a few expressed optimism. Regardless, they shared uncertainty about the four years ahead.

“No matter how you feel about this election, you are living through a very transformative period in American history,” said civics and economics teacher Jonathan Hubbs to his students on Wednesday.

Hubbs said he was coaching at a cross country meet during election night and periodically checked his phone as results came in. He woke up the next morning to Trump’s victory.

“I wasn’t surprised, it was more of a wonder,” Hubbs said. “I wonder what [it] means to have a convicted felon elected as president.”

Hubbs said the results of the presidential election show that Americans want change in their government and that the Democratic Party is “headed towards a reckoning” leading up to the 2026 midterm elections.

“Democrats have to look at themselves and do some deep soul-searching,” Hubbs said. “They need to realize that there’s a big part of their coalition that feels ignored by them.”

Civics and U.S. history teacher Kelsey Theriault, who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, said she was not surprised by the results. However, she was surprised at how quickly the election was called and the conservative shift across the country.

“I think we are headed towards a realignment of political parties in the coming years,” Theriault said.

Although many have expressed concern over the anti-abortion policies with Trump as president, Theriault said that California “will be insulated” as a deep blue state, unlike swing states — states where the Democratic and Republican parties have similar levels of support from voters — and deep red states, whose reproductive rights will remain on the line. California’s state constitution has guaranteed the right to abortion since 1969 and a proposition passed in 2022 further enshrined the right. 

Both Theriault and Hubbs were critical towards the president-elect’s proposed economic policies, specifically tax cuts and tariffs. Theriault said that Trump’s tax cuts seem to benefit  wealthier people, which she does not support. Hubbs said the characterization of tariffs in Trump’s campaign has been misleading, and would in fact raise a lot of prices for Americans. 

“We want this next government to continue to try to stabilize prices,” Hubbs said. “We want unemployment to remain relatively low, and I think any policies that come through Congress should address the needs of people that are crying for help right now.”

Senior Senator Trent Story McCauley IV said that the U.S. is a “scary country to be a queer person in” following the election results.

“I’m lucky,” McCauley IV said. “I’m in California, which is a pretty good bastion for a lot of my rights. But I can’t imagine what it’s like to be queer in Florida right now.”

McCauley IV said he was concerned that Trump’s policies will “invalidate [his] existence” — specifically, the removal of gender-affirming healthcare and the disenfranchisement of queer people in the U.S.

“Some people I know have considered suicide,” McCauley IV said. “That’s the thing that I’m most scared of, just people losing hope.” 

Junior Benjamin Lin, who labels himself as a Republican, said he was tracking the electoral counts live on the Associated Press and watching Fox News on Tuesday night. He said the moment Pennsylvania turned red, he instantly knew Trump would win. 

“Trump will help the younger generation build a platform where they’re able to grow older, live the American dream, and get jobs to serve America,” Lin said.

He said that he is supportive of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, which includes mass deportations and expanding the border.

“[The Biden administration] gives such a priority to illegal immigrants when they come in here unlawfully and are stripping away our benefits as American citizens,” Lin said. “It naturally hurts. We want to prioritize America first because we’re American and that’s what we deserve.”

Although the Biden administration has extended Temporary Protective Status to undocumented immigrants, no specific rights have been taken away from naturalized American citizens. However, there is a possibility of budget reductions to federal funding for benefit programs attributed to the increase in population, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Lin said that although Trump’s conviction and accusations of sexual assault have not made for an ideal public image, his qualities as a leader resonated with him.

“He’s survived an assassination attempt,” Lin said. “He’s been called garbage. He’s been called a threat to democracy. He’s been hated by almost the majority of America. But he still makes it a mission to himself and the people of America to ‘Make America Great Again’.”

Senior Meera Mathew, who said she leans Democrat, said that as a member of the Ambassadors program who works with English Language Development students, she has noticed that many are scared by the election results and what it means for many of them as immigrants. 

“Ambassadors is 100% focused on creating equity and accepting everyone, and that is not something that Trump’s rhetoric exemplifies,” Mathew said. “There is an underlying hatred towards others, which is not what Ambassadors stands for at all.”

Mathew also said that as a woman, the election results and what it means for access to reproductive health resources across the country may influence where she decides to attend college next year.

Civics and economics teacher Felitia Hancock said that she believes Trump’s immigration policy will “punch holes into the hearts of communities” as undocumented immigrants contribute to the workforce and pay federal, state, and local taxes. She said that she is worried immigrant families, both documented and undocumented, may begin to withdraw from the school community out of fear. 

“It’s disappointing to see so many of my fellow Americans make a choice that I think is fundamentally poking giant holes in the things that we say we value most,” Hancock said, referring to American democracy.

Hancock said that she voted for Harris in the election and hoped that under her administration, the government would be able to compromise and make progress, which she believes is essential to the survival of American democracy.

“Trump’s approach is that if you disagree with him, he denigrates you, he dismisses you, he dehumanizes you,” Hancock said. “That kind of language and that kind of attitude leads to very dark places very quickly.”

Hancock also said that she believes Trump threatens democracy by undermining the institutions that exist to provide goods and services to its people.

“President-elect Trump’s whole approach is that you should hate the government [and] be suspicious of the government,” Hancock said. “The people who end up getting hurt by that are the people who need the government the most.”

With family from Russia and friends on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine border, junior Alexey Fedorov, who considers himself a Republican Trump supporter, said that he is supportive of Trump’s plan to negotiate with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. 

He also said that he believed the stock market jump on Wednesday morning alongside Trump’s win was a good sign for Trump’s economic policies. The bump increased the Standard and Poor’s 500 by 2.5% on Wednesday morning, and is a response to the belief that Trump will be easier on corporations during his term, according to analysts.

“I want economic growth,” Fedorov said. “I want money. I want my family to have more money. I want my stocks to be up. I want my family’s stocks to be up.”

Junior Saumya Anand said that she was surprised more by who voted for Trump than the outcome itself, especially as Trump was projected to win the popular vote for the first time across his three campaigns.

“It’s sad to know that people’s values resonate with someone who’s a [convicted] felon, has multiple accounts of rape against him, [and] who’s a very hateful person towards a lot of groups,” Anand said.

Anand was most critical of Trump’s plan to censor and close the Department of Education and his proposal to ban critical race theory and gender studies — as written in his Agenda47 plan. She also criticized plans to criminalize teachers who speak on gender or sexuality that appear in the Project 2025  playbook, which Trump attempted to distance himself from during his campaign. 

“As someone who is an artist and expresses what I believe in forms of art, I hope that is not stopped,” Anand said. “I hope that is not censored. I hope people keep creating and speaking out.”

Although Anand said that she is unhappy with the election overall, she does hope that Trump’s presidency will increase the “opportunity for second chances for felons” who have limited employment and lose many rights, including their right to vote.

Senior Luke Stephenson said that he is most concerned about the possibility for Trump to appoint more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would be able to heavily influence the decisions of the country “for the next 50 plus years.”

Stephenson said that although this is not the outcome he hoped for, he does hope that it will “foster positive change in communities.”

“Let this inspire you,” Stephenson said. “Turn this negative experience into something that you’re proud of. Be the change that you want to see in your community. [The role of the President] seems massive, but the impact that we have on our community and in our day-to-day lives is much more powerful.”

This story was originally published on Oracle on November 9, 2024.