Upper Marlboro, Maryland, U.S.A. – The first time my parents allowed me to stay up past my then-8 p.m. bedtime was during the 2016 election. It was the only school night I could spend yelling at the TV, so I spent it yelling every time a state was colored in red. This was the first time Trump became president.
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By 2024, I hadn’t bothered watching the election because I already knew the outcome – Trump would be president for the second time – and I screamed ever louder once I realized I was right.
I was in school, purposely avoiding my playlist on Soundcloud, internet searches, and text messages from friends. I didn’t want to know that America would come crashing down soon.
Unsurprisingly, America’s fall started as quickly as Trump entered office again. Just days in, he slashed the government’s budget including spending on international aid, medical and scientific research, funding for environmental services, federal workers and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which did and do not only benefit Black Americans.
Behind him was Elon Musk, who decided to divert these funds to DOGE – the Department of Government Efficiency that Musk led and later stepped down from after the damage was done. Over 200,000 federal workers lost their jobs, minority serving institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities lost funding, food aid such as SNAP benefits were frozen, farmers lost funding and NASA scrubbed its site of the women who made major breakthroughs in the aerospace field. There was a measles outbreak and many more consequences from the Trump administration’s claims of the government’s wasteful spending on aid, grants, and other support that underserved communities fought long and hard to get.
They did all this while spending more money fueling the underground flames of racism and discrimination that America has been slowburning for years.
A few months in, Trump reignited his crusade on immigration, increasing the costs of H1-B visas, denying some countries access to the United States, deploying ICE into the streets without training where they killed at least four Americans and hurt countless others, and wrongly deporting people, sometimes to countries they are not even from.
His administration is moving to suppress voting rights – a tired tactic in 2026 that targets Black American voters, while snowballing and impacting other communities.
Now, he has started a war with Iran, sending the very veterans whose benefits he cut to fight overseas without a plan or solid reasoning behind the war.
I live near a military base and am hearing more frequent, intense aircraft sounds. His administration, which is the true benefit of diversity, equity and inclusion, is made up of unqualified and incompetent people who set out to fatten themselves and their pocketbooks while pushing ideologies they themselves do not understand enough to believe in.
At the same time, former members of his administration speak out against him. Their words are not worth much to me, though, as they are only speaking because they no longer benefit from the false sense of protection his administration gave them.
His administration has displaced millions of Iranians, Lebanese and people in neighboring countries. It has raised the prices of goods, safety concerns and added to the overall stress I am facing as a 19-year-old.
I have friends living in affected areas and my heart jumps every time I see their countries’ names in headlines.
Iran has its issues, I agree, but who is America and Israel to call themselves the saviors of the Iranian people while spurring genocide and hate? When America has denied women their reproductive rights? When America has built its fortune off the over 400-year enslavement of Black people and the continuous misfortune of others? When the Iranians the Trump Administration said it’s fighting for can’t even enter our country on a travel visa? When America’s president is a convicted felon?
I’m convinced Trump is doing all of these vile and thoughtless things not because he wants to use the government as a direct deposit to his satin-lined pockets (although it’s plausible), but because Trump wants to be remembered in history.
Before his presidencies, he hadn’t left much of a mark on the world other than his numerous failed real estate investments, his casual racism and allegedly groping women by their privates or “pussy” (as he said) and partying on Epstein island.
In his first term, he was impeached twice, started an insurrection and lacked basic geography knowledge. He thinks his second term will be his way to leave a mark.
He has left a mark, and everyone who voted for him or chose not to vote is at fault.
This is the fault of Americans – those too misogynistic to vote for a woman in 2016 and 2024. Even if they didn’t like the candidates, their lack of sense to vote for a male who they thought could better represent them during the primaries is at fault.
It is the fault of Black men who blissfully thought they would get a tax cut knowing a lot of them don’t make the type of money Trump will give a tax cut to, while Trump sees them as nothing more than harmful stereotypes.
It is the fault of Latino voters who believed Trump wouldn’t deport members of their community first when they have become the faces of immigration in the United States.
It is the fault of white and Asian voters who believe that Black people are taking spots at their universities and coveted jobs.
It is the fault of white people who are too racist and privileged to see that they are not as understanding and in solidarity as they feel.
It is the fault of those who think any of what has happened since Jan. 20, 2025 is not their issue.
It is the fault of elected officials who were waiting for their peers to challenge something before they did. It is the fault of people who have waited until America has destroyed yet another country – including itself – before using the rights and freedoms it loves to hold over other countries.
When I vote for the first time in the election this fall, I will take all of this into consideration.
Though it pains me to constantly check the disastrous news cycle, I know I need to stay as educated as possible because that is the only way I will be able to make careful votes.
I already know what I’m not voting for, but knowing who to vote for is becoming extremely difficult when everyone keeps flip flopping their values and intentions.
I hope 2028 comes fast with less chaos, but I know that this is not going to happen.
For now, I can only focus on the wellbeing of those close to me, pray for safety and strength, and deepen my civic engagement skills so that when I have the power to vote, I don’t let down the generations after me like the world did to 19-year-old me.
Dorothy Quanteh is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
