In a shocking turn of events, Donald J. Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States at 2:47 AM on Wednesday morning.   Political pundits and several websites projected Trump to have less than a 30% chance to win the presidency at the beginning of the night. Despite the bleak forecast, victories in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida propelled Trump to a stunning victory. Although Trump ran a campaign with a largely negative rhetoric, Trump gracefully acknowledged Clinton’s service to the country and the high level of competition throughout the campaign and subsequent election. “I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us on our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very hard-fought campaign. She fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.” This transformation in tone bodes well for the entire country because it demonstrates Trump’s ability to conduct himself in a less polarizing manner and instead, unite this nation.

Despite how some may feel about the results of this election, it is important that the American people unite and work together to improve this country instead of giving up entirely. In his acceptance speech, Trump called for America to “bind the wounds of division.” This is a perfectly reasonable and important call to action from the man who we now call our leader. It is crucial to our future success as a country that we band together regardless of political affiliation so we can have our voices as citizens heard and improve this nation.  

With a republican-majority congress, President Trump is going to undergo a much less arduous process to advance his policies. During Obama’s time in office, congressional “gridlock” was a common occurrence due to the difference in party affiliation between the president and congress. This republican majority in all stages of the legislation process will lead to a much more efficient system of governing and also result in the total reversal of virtually everything Obama attempted to do while he was in office.  In his 100-day plan, Trump vowed to “drain the swamp” of big money in politics, impose a set of protectionist policies to close America’s economic borders, and cancel billions of dollars in payments to the United Nations for climate change programs. Trump even went as far as to say that during his first 24 hours in office, he would do as much work as possible to erase the traces of Obama ever being president. Another aspect of the speech he gave outlining his 100-day plan was his priority to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault. Trump also threatened to break up Comcast and NBC and also force Amazon, whose owner also owns The Washington Post, to pay more taxes. It is immediately unclear on whether Trump will actually pursue this course of action or, much like his rhetoric, this was simply an aspect of his showmanship that he utilized to propel himself to the presidency.

Although many people may be unhappy with the results of this election, we must realize that now is a more important time than ever to unite as a nation and incite change.  Despite what anybody has to say about Donald Trump, he is indeed the President of the United States and therefore someone we have no choice but to work with. Although much is unclear about what will happen after election night, the one thing we do know according to Trump is that his supporters are going to “win so big” they will soon be “sick of winning.