by Kendle King, 12th
In the United States, there have been 45 different Presidents. Of the 45, 44 of them have either served in the military or had prior experience in politics. Who is the one who hasn’t, you might wonder? Donald Trump.
Coming down to the 2016 election, the two choices were either former U.S. Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton vs television personality and businessman, Donald Trump. When you break it down, it sounds like an easy choice, right?
Apparently not, considering Trump won and became our president. In 2020, Trump ran again. This time against former Vice President Joe Biden. However, he was not victorious, as he lost the election, and proceeded to incite a riot in the capital on January 6th, 2021.
The 2024 election seemed, at first glance, much like the 2016 election. Former Senator, Attorney General, and Vice President Kamala Harris ran against Donald Trump. There was a highly publicized pre-election period characterized by Biden dropping out of the race, Trump being shot, and a debate between Harris and Trump that led to the now infamous quote, “They’re eating the cats and dogs”—referring to immigrants. After a few more debates, and some more campaigning, Trump eventually won the election, largely due to him winning all of the swing states.
Now, let’s go back to where we started. How in the world did a man with no military experience, no experience in politics, and 34 felonies on top of it, win the election over Kamala Harris?
It all comes down to one thing: lying. Trump is, truthfully, not good at many things. He isn’t a very good president (according to scholars), he isn’t a very good businessman (six of his businesses ended up filing for bankruptcy), and he isn’t a very good speaker. However, his biggest strength just so happens to be good enough for him to talk his way to the top. That strength is lying. He is outstandingly good at lying to people, and making the lies convincing enough. In fact, during his campaign tour in Pennsylvania, he told 40 lies, and somehow got his fanbase to believe every single one. He knows his audience, he knows his skills, and he knows that those skills can take him very far in a field built on lies.
Donald Trump is very good at lying, and he is very good at picking the right audience to believe his lies.