Donald John Trump – born 1946 – is an American businessman, entertainer and the 45th president of the United States. Trump is famous for posting statements on Twitter and he thrives on the attention given to him by the media. (Currently, Trump is not able to use Twitter since his account has been suspended since the insurrection on 6th January 2021). By gaining more and more importance and influence, Trump was able to grow his former real estate company [dt.: Immobilienunternehmen] into a conglomerate [dt.: Mischkonzern] selling perfume, clothing, games, organising beauty competitions and leading a modelling agency. Trump is the head of his company and owns “The Trump Organization” in New York. During his presidency, he relinquished his role as head of the company, and his two sons currently have executive roles.
Regarding economy, he is supposedly against companies with workplaces in foreign countries and he supports imposing punitive tariffs [dt.: Strafzölle verhängen] and rewarding domestic workers. According to Trump, illegal immigrants from Mexico are preventing America from becoming great again; therefore, a large focus of his recent political career was to build his border wall to curb illegal immigration. He wants domestic workers to have absolute priority in the job market.
Another important aspect for Trump was the safety, security and wealth of the United States. Even if this meaned breaking previous international agreements and alienating allies, Trump continued to act in line with his slogan “America first”.
Moreover, Trump tried to reverse Obama’s achievements on health and social services. Obama strongly believed that nobody should die on the streets just because they were unable to pay for insurance, and he worked to fix the broken health system of the US. Trump has tried to undo the work of the Obama administration and replace it with his “great new system”, the details of which he has yet to specify.
Another political aspect is climate change. Trump does not believe in climate change, and does not believe that humans are responsible for its acceleration. Therefore, he announced the American exit from the Paris climate agreement in 2020. Donald Trump was voted out of office on the 3rd of November 2020. Although Trump believed that the election had been rigged, he could not produce any evidence. On the one hand, the 2020 election was a vote to remove Trump from office so that a more competent, responsible and internationally cooperative government could operate in the US. On the other hand, Trump still had a large number of votes on his side. Internationally, Biden's victory was largely greeted with relief, but concerns remain about how the mood fanned by Trump will develop in the future, especially after his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Police violence and gun lobby:
Even after several school shootings, Trump still supports the gun lobby, arguing that every American should have the right to own a weapon. This right is even set in the “Second Amendment” which allows people to keep and bear arms. Instead of tightening the weapons laws, Trump wants to fight against crime. Trumps also advocates executions in the United States.
Executions:
Executions are carried out by electrocution, lethal injection or by using a gas chamber. Around 1999, the execution rate rose to the peak of roughly 100 executions per year. At this time, 4.1 percent of the convicted people were wrongly sentenced to death. Nowadays, the numbers have dropped to less than 30 people killed per year.According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, ethnicity has played a major role, 41.7 percent of the convicted are African American, 43.1 percent Caucasian and 12.6 percent are Hispanic. Only 13% of the US population are African Americans; hence, the number that is executed is unproportionally high and scholars and activists have thus referred to it as “modern day lynchings”.
A number of states have abolished capital punishment; nevertheless, it does not seem like the country will get rid of death penalty [dt.: Todesstrafe] any time soon. However, the fact that Virgina is the first Southern State and the 23rd overall to abolish the death penalty in 2021 shows that there might be hope that more southern states will follow. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that a state such as Texas will ban capital punishment in the near future. Death penalty expert Deborah W. Denno has said on record that the abolishment of capital punishment is going to be a slow-moving process.
The values of the American Dream as a danger to society: Self-responsibility and individualism are aspects of the American Dream (see „American Dream as a manifestation of individualism“). The government propagates the idea that everyone has to protect his or her own family, weapons being the obvious means of protection. These issues, or rather this belief, is responsible for America’s booming gun lobby.
The most important gun advocacy group is the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), which plays a huge role in political affairs. Speaking in favor of the NRA and defending the Second Amendment played a significant role in Trump’s presidential election, which already indicates the huge influence of the gun lobby.
Donald Trump supports this thinking by proposing to introduce the legal carrying of weapons by teachers and even by students in schools in order to reduce the number of school shootings.
Gun control in the US is a very important topic that needs to be understood in order to be able to comprehend Americans' thought on self-defense through weapons. The following table enumerates arguments for and against gun control. Because of gun missuse or school shootings, which occur quite often in the US, you should be able to discuss the pros and cons of gun control in the US:
Pro: Gun-control | Con: Gun-control |
Government has to regulate gun carrying | Individual rights written in the constitution |
Reduced school shootings and crime by regulating the possession of guns | Self-defence from others but especially from the state |
Gun lobby profits | Gun purchase and sale for economic growth |