Shepherd campus weighs in on Trump

(THE PICKET)—Love him or hate him, real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump has not backed down from his pursuit of the presidency of the United States.

According to an October 21 poll from the Washington Post and ABC News, Trump still leads the field of Republican nominees, commanding 32 percent of voters’ support ahead of the rapidly approaching Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Dr. Ben Carson is in second place, commanding 22 percent.

Trump’s brash style and incendiary remarks have irked many ever since he joined the fray of GOP presidential hopefuls, from his controversial words on undocumented immigrants to his comments on George W. Bush’s handling of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Trump represents a true, original symbol of an American man. He’s a man who’s worked hard to make himself better than he was the day before. Trump represents a man who simply shot for higher and had the American pride and work ethic that no longer exists. He’s a determined man who will not give up on his goal, which is fixing America,” said Andy Dobrzanski, an 18-year-old senior majoring in computer science. Carlos Amaya, 22, a senior political science major, disagrees sharply with Dobrzanski.

“Trump is just all talk, no action, and he’s just stupid,” said Amaya, slamming the mogul for his comments implying he would have more effectively prevented or responded to terrorist attacks. “How are you going to blame Bush (for 9/11), he was reading to kids. He’s just saying that because he was not in the same situation as Bush.” Dr. Jacob Stump, professor of political science, finds himself fascinated by the Trump campaign.

“I think a lot of people underestimated (Trump) at the beginning, people were saying he’s not even running a campaign, he’s more reality TV, and that may be the case, but in a way, I’m not sure there’s a big difference between reality TV and our political system. Whatever difference there was between those two things, he has fairly handily transitioned from one to the other,” Stump said. “It’s interesting stuff. I think that whether he’s a buffoon or not, the things he’s saying certainly tap into a widely held sentiment among a chunk of people in the United States, so he’s as legitimate as anybody else.”