*This article represents the opinions of only the writers, not other Fanscotian staff members or its advisors, the student body or SPFHS as a whole.*
On Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States.
——Social Media and Conservative Influencers—
Scrolling on social media the week before the election, the majority of videos social media users were posting were political. One video that was trending was a news clip from Fox News. In this clip, which was filmed prior to Election Day, host Jesse Watters declared that if his wife voted for Kamala Harris (Watters, in case it wasn’t obvious, is in support of Donald Trump), he would value it the same as having an affair.
This clip came in light of a recent advertisement shared by the non-profit organization Vote Common Good, which is narrated by actress Julia Roberts, and shows two women sharing a knowing look over the voting booth and walking out to their husbands as if they’ve made ‘the right choice’. It is clear that the two men have voted for Trump and the women declare that they have as well, thus telling their husbands a lie about their vote.
Viewers quickly called out Watters’ hypocrisy, as the commentator cheated on his wife Noelle Inguagiato with a producer on his show “The Five,” Emma DiGiovine. He and Inguagiato have since divorced, and Watters and DiGiovine got married in 2019. Creepily enough, Watters claims that he began dating his current wife by letting the air out of her tires so that she would ask him for a ride home. At the time of this event, Watters was married and pursuing his producer who is 14 years his junior.
Watters’ opinion goes against the entire point of having private polling booths. Voting is a private event. Other conservatives have labeled the campaign ad as ‘disgusting’ and ‘nauseating.’ Charlie Kirk, well-known for his political debates on the YouTube channel Jubilee, said that he thinks “it’s so nauseating where this wife is wearing the American hat, she’s coming in with her sweet husband who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can go, you know, and have a nice life and provide to the family..and then she votes for Kamala Harris as her little secret in the voting booth.”
In what world does a wife owe that to her husband? Kirk is clearly stuck in the housewife mindset of the 1950s, as women have since been able to own a credit card in their name, have served on the Supreme Court and run for President in major parties twice—once in 2016 and again in 2024.
In the few days before the election, a trend on TikTok was an image slideshow, with users claiming that they were going to cancel out their family’s or partner’s votes. Most of the time, the slideshow declares that it was a joke and that they could never put up with someone who does not respect their rights. For other users, this is not the case. This raises the question: why are we more concerned about people not revealing who they voted for than why women are afraid to admit to their Trump-supporter husbands that they believe in the right to have control over their own bodies?
For many women across the U.S., it is disappointing that Donald Trump was, once again, elected—and they have been expressing these feelings on social media. Social media users from foreign countries have even voiced their thoughts and confusion at how Trump was an option for president. Legally, it is a bit confusing. If a convicted felon cannot vote, why should they be able to run for president? The Founding Fathers likely didn’t think that Americans would go as far as to elect someone who was a criminal into office.
Trump is a convicted felon with 34 counts of falsified business records, has been accused of sexual assault more than once and has been proven guilty of assaulting Stormy Daniels.
Trump does not respect women. Although he claims that he will protect women, “whether they like it or not,”, Trump threatens women’s right to an abortion, as his Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which has set off a domino effect, eroding women’s reproductive rights in red states in the years following.
This is not the first time that Trump has said something controversial regarding women.
—Trump’s Past Controversies—
In 2018, esteemed journalist Bob Woodward published Fear: Trump in the White House, which illustrates the chaos of the White House under Trump’s control, with many anonymous interviewees describing the then-president’s actions. In one of his interviews, Woodward spoke to a friend of Trump’s who acknowledged that Trump had acted in a poor manner towards women. “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women,” Trump said regarding denying sexual harassment and assault allegations, according to Woodward. “If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead. … You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to push back hard. You’ve got to deny anything that’s said about you. Never admit.”
Trump has been vocal about his stance against the #MeToo movement, which, considering he has been accused by at least 18 women of either (or both) sexual harassment or sexual assault, is not very surprising.
Another quote of Trump’s from June 2004 has recently resurfaced on TikTok, particularly due to the disturbing things Trump says about his daughter, Ivanka Trump. “She does have a very nice figure…if [she] weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her,” Trump said in an interview with controversial comic Howard Stern. For many reasons, this statement is particularly disturbing, especially since it is not the first time that Trump has said something inappropriate about his daughter.
Trump’s controversies are seemingly never-ending. During the 2016 presidential race between Democrat Hilary Clinton and Trump, Trump was given support by the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), a white supremacy group that was particularly abundant in the South in the 19th century and the early 20th century.
As more facts about Trump or his quotes are revealed, it becomes more difficult to understand how so many people support and vote for him. The decision is clear: a convicted felon who has also been found liable for sexual assault, or a woman. No matter if you like Kamala Harris or not, you should be able to distinguish between someone who cares so little about anyone else’s rights (except white men’s), and a woman. To many, Trump’s greatest crime is his treatment and actions towards immigrants, women and minority groups. For Harris, her biggest crime is being a woman.
Although no candidate is perfect, one is very clearly much worse than the other. Harris was one of the most qualified candidates to have been in the race in years, so it was particularly shocking that she managed to lose. She has served for a number of years in each branch of government: as a prosecutor, Attorney General, senator, vice president and presidential candidate. Donald Trump has run for president three times: the two times he has run against women he has won, and the only time he ran against a man, he lost. These elections were sequential, but it went from Trump winning to losing to winning again. It cannot merely just be a coincidence that he happens to lose the one time it is against a man.
The reality of the situation is that men still don’t trust women in positions of power or at all. The rights of women and the rights of minority groups rest in the hands of white men, the same way it has been since the beginning of our country’s history.
—— Project 2025 and Trump’s Cabinet——
As many right-leaning men across the country rejoice in the results of the election, so many American women are mourning the loss of their freedoms—which is particularly difficult to overcome with the more drastic implications of Project 2025.
Project 2025 is a right-wing blueprint of the radical restructuring plans for the executive branch created by The Heritage Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to creating and promoting conservative public policies. The project addresses every aspect of American life and how it will “start undoing the damage the Left has wrought and build a better country for all Americans in 2025.” These plans include mass deportation, warrantless surveillance, limiting voting access, censoring education, removal of trans rights and the most divisive debate and important subject to women of the U.S.: restricting abortion access.
Roughly two-thirds of all abortions provided by healthcare professionals are medication abortions, and the majority use the combined regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol. Project 2025 calls to remove mifepristone’s FDA approval and details further plans to effectively ban medication abortions, and potentially all abortions, through the Comstock Act of 1873. The Comstock Act of 1873 banned the sending of ‘obscene, lewd or lascivious’ publications through the mail, which led to censorship of information about birth control and other preventions for pregnancy. While the act’s birth control elements were overturned in 1936 through United States v. One Package, Project 2025 plans to reinstate and enforce the Comstock Act, which would effectively ban the mailing of anything that has an intended purpose of causing an abortion.
Americans should know that anti-abortion acts mentioned in Project 2025 include denying access to abortion care in emergency situations. The project suggests that the Department of Health and Human Services remove abortion protections provided under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad,” Trump said in the 2024 presidential debate.
Trump claims to have no interest in the infamous transition project. However, following his victory, his choice of cabinet members displays the exact opposite.
Russel Vought, Trump’s pick for Office of Management and Budget, and Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), both authored full Project 2025 chapters.
Trump also chose John Ratcliffe for CIA director, Pete Hoekstra for ambassador to Canada and Tom Homan for his ‘border czar’. The men listed above are also all contributors to Project 2025.
Matt Gaetz, another controversial candidate, was Trump’s first pick for Attorney General. However, he withdrew recently amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Gaetz is not the only candidate Trump has nominated that has been accused of sexual misconduct.
Pete Hegseth, nominated to run the Pentagon, was accused of sexual assault in 2017. During his presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, was accused of sexual assault by a former family babysitter to his children.
Obviously, America is not worried about the morals of government officials, as long as they promise to put money in the pockets of Americans–a promise that has been unfulfilled time and time again.
So maybe America does not necessarily hate women. Maybe they just don’t matter. About eight in ten Americans say it is important for women to have equal rights with men in our country. So why did almost three million more Americans vote for Trump, a politician who has displayed blatant disrespect towards women, supports bills that take away women’s rights to abortion and is building a cabinet with multiple men who support the idea of women having no say in their bodies at all?
The answer?
Financial gain. In a society where money is power, the average American may favor a president who promises to bring more wealth to the country. Whether or not Trump truly intends to better the U.S. economy—for all classes—, he is money. Trump is worth about 5.5 billion as of Nov. 2024. A skilled businessman, voters believe his financial position will affect their own bank accounts. Project 2025 also projects possible financial gain from factors like the Universal Savings Account, which would allow Americans to save significant amounts tax-free. But of course, there’s a cost to greed.
A look into the future of Project 2025 where women’s rights are on the line: Trump voters, men and women, watch as America falls apart. Abortions are outlawed causing the death rates from unsafe abortions and the mortality rate of pregnant women to rise, as well as the percentage of depressed and suicidal Americans. As contraceptives are removed, pregnancy—notedly in teens—surges. The population increase requires more funding for the education system as additional buildings, teachers and supplies are needed. Healthcare costs related to childbirth, parental care and unsafe abortions increase. Women leave their jobs due to unplanned parenthood, decreasing workforce participation. Fewer women in the workforce causes an economic growth slowdown where GDP growth and innovation are halted. This financial strain leads to higher rates of poverty.
——The Bigger Picture——
If women’s rights aren’t enough for Americans to choose leaders who are in favor of equality of all genders’ bodies, the financial burden on taxpayers may make them stop and think again. Taxpayers will have to support unintended pregnancies through healthcare, welfare programs, education and social services.
The financial gain America is constantly clawing at may only result in a worse quality of life as more than half of America is willing to prioritize potential money over women’s right to life.
A caution to America: history has shown that the rights of the modern woman were not handed over; they were won through relentless advocacy, struggle and sacrifice. Women have fought for the right to vote, workplace equity, reproductive autonomy and broke through systematic barriers. Removing—even undermining—these rights turns back the clock and dishonors the women who fought to achieve them.
America, protect the hard-earned rights of American citizens. Protect the women of this country from a man who couldn’t care less about them or their opinions. The women of the United States deserve more than to watch their lives turn into an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” from afar.
American women have been fighting for their rights for centuries, and there is no reason that 21st-century women should be facing problems similar to those of their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Women are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and friends, but they are also strong-minded individuals who should not have to be tied to a man to have value extended to their lives. Do finances matter more to America than a woman dying from preeclampsia during childbirth, or a young girl being forced to give birth after being forcibly impregnated?
Women matter. But it seems that to many Americans after this election, they don’t.
