How Trump Won the Election

This time last year it seemed unlikely that Donald Trump would ever address the world as President of the United States of America.

17:08 03 April 2017

Indeed, even in the hours before he was announced President Elect, very few imagined this complex, bombastic figure could become the most powerful man in the world.

 

However, under the complicated, longwinded process known as the electoral college, such a thing did happen in November 2016 - and the world has been the world has been trying to work out how best to react ever since.

 

President Donald Trump’s election campaign, inauguration and first few weeks of power will no doubt go down as being among some of the most controversial moments in American political history. From suspected links to Russian intelligence and allegations of phone tapping to the millions of Americans citizens unwilling, even now, to acknowledge Trump’s presidency, the next four years are shaping up to be interesting, to say the least.

 

Who, apart from The Simpsons, would ever have predicted Trump’s meteoric rise to power? Perhaps not even Trump himself, despite the many grandiloquent claims made during his campaign and since his election.

 

His has been a dramatic and quick rise to power; despite numerous dalliances with politics since the late 1980s, many were still shocked by the launch of Trump’s presidential campaign in June 2015. Having never held public office, it was a bold - and controversial - move.

 

Donald Trump and his rise to power

 

Until June 2015, Donald J Trump was better known as a businessman, casino mogul and television personality, regularly hiring and firing nervous apprentices, juggling bankruptcies and lawsuits, and making outrageous claims that both shocked and entertained.

 

Always a forthright character, Trump has long revelled in the limelight, and was considered the saviour of Atlantic City, as recently detailed by 888casino, thanks to his reinvigoration of the resort city’s hotel and casino scene.

 

It wasn’t enough for Trump, though, and he turned his hand to politics - running before he could walk, some said.

 

His campaign was a ruthless one, and many theories have been put forward as to how and why Trump won the presidential election, despite Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote by more than two million ballots.

 

The most popular is that voters wanted, and needed, change; disillusioned by the credit crunch and the threat of terrorism, they sought out the destruction of the establishment. What could be more representative of a different outlook than Trump?

 

Many have also questioned the President’s campaign tactics; rather than Trump winning the election, did he make sure Clinton lost it? The leaked emails, accusations of corruption and rumours of Russian intervention were ever-present on the long road to the election on 8th November 2016.

 

Some have credited Trump’s media standing and celebrity for his success. Any press, even negative press, as they say, is better than none and at all, and Trump was seldom out of the limelight. Fake news and social media seemingly aided his ascent to the presidency, keeping him in the public eye constantly.

 

The future under Trump

 

With the dust still settling on Trump’s inauguration on 20th January 2017, people continue to ask whether he could be a credible president. Can a figure whose election campaign caused such controversy competently lead the free world?

 

While there are those who are pleased Trump has taken the most powerful seat in the world, the many protests that have been made by celebrities and regular folk alike tend to suggest his presidency is likely to be a rocky one.

 

To date, the new president has declared war on mainstream media, conducted a nuclear strategy meeting in public, condemned the US court system and signed several controversial and impactful executive orders. An order suspending the resettlement of refugees and stopping nationals of seven Muslim countries entering the US, later blocked by a federal judge, saw Trump garner international criticism.

 

 

And yet there’s more, including an FBI investigation into Russian intelligence breaches, which could yet lead to Trump’s impeachment, which would be only the third in US political history. But until that investigation is complete at least, Donald Trump looks set to continue as president with his trademark showmanship and disregard for controversy.