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To say that President Donald Tr ump’s election to office has stirred a flurr y of reactions is an understatement, and suc h a contro versial and histor ic al election poses the question of where Asian Amer ic ans fit in a post-Tr ump Amer ic a. President Donald Tr ump’s r hetor ic a bout immigr ation, inc luding a tr avel ban that targeted Muslim-major it y countr ies, has created mixed emotions in the Asian Amer ic an communit y. S ince his victor y in the No vember, Tr ump’s presidenc y has been met with dr astic al l y diff erent emotions from the Amer ic an public as a whole. No other Amer ic an president has taken office with an appro val r ating as low as President Tr ump’s – at 45 percent, according to Gal lup. And his presidential inaugur ation was met with an unusual mix of celebr ations and protests. In pre-election sur ve y s conducted by the National Asian Amer ic an S ur ve y (NAAS), Asian Amer ic ans reacted strongl y against immigr ation bans pur por ted l y targeting Muslims. Now the y appear to be voting along the same direct ion. “Asians demogr aphic al l y look like the y should be Republic an, but the y ’re predominat el y Democr atic, ”
BY NEELESH BAPATLA
said S tephen Cr aig, a politic al science prof essor at UF study ing voter attitudes in the U.S. Most hold consistentl y progressive vie ws on a my r iad of issues, inc luding healthc are, educ ation and r acism, according to the NAAS. Tr ump has not pol led wel l with Republic an Asian Amer ic ans either. The Asian Amer ic an L egal Def ense and Educ ation Fund repor ted that the Republic an Asian Amer ic an voters crosso ver to the Democr atic c andidate increased by 6.2 percent since the last election, and that 7.6 percent of Republic an Asian Amer ic ans did not vote f or their par t y ’s c andidate. The NAAS repor ted in ear l y October 2016 that al l national or igin groups that tested in its sur ve y, inc luding tr aditional l y Republic an groups suc h as V ietnamese Amer ic ans, al l pref ered Clinton o ver Tr ump. Like many tr aditional l y Republic an-leaning Asian Amer ic ans, Matthe w W ilson, a 22-year old psyc holog y major at UF, does not f eel he c an currentl y suppor t Tr ump. “ I stil l think it ’s too ear l y to be either afr aid or joyous that he won the election, but if he keeps going in the route that he is going, the gamble that a lot of people took wil l be a bad one, ” W ilson said.
W ilson belie ves t hat many issues that Tr ump has brought up – national secur it y, border secur it y – need addressing, but the manner in whic h Tr ump has tr ied to address them has been too br az en f or him in both language and polic y. “ I like the fact he is shaking
I STILL THINK IT’S TOO EARLY TO BE EITHER AFRAID OR JOYOUS THAT HE WON THE ELECTION, things up, but … he is not shaking them in the r ight way, ” W ilson said. “ He needs to lear n to compromise more. ” O thers are more opposed to Tr ump and his policies. Pr aveen Var anasi is the president of the Indian S tudents Association at UF. As a suppor ter of Ver mont S enator Ber nie S anders dur ing the Democr atic Presidential pr imar ies, Var anasi has staunc hl y diff erent vie ws than W ilson on a number of issues. He ec hoes many of W ilson’s complaints with Tr ump’s r hetor ic, but unlike W ilson,
“I hope Americans have the ability to stand up to him”
who said he belie ves that Tr ump has the r ight hear t, Var anasi said he belie ves Tr ump is “ legitimatel y … not qualified ” to be president, in ter ms of his c har acter and temper ament. He cited the Tr ump biogr apher and ghost w r iter of the 1987 book “ Tr ump: The Ar t of the Deal, ” Tony S c hwar tz who c har acter iz ed Tr ump to the Ne w Yorker magazine as self-centered. “ It seems like he ’s just play ing this c har acter to r ile people, ” Var anasi said. According to Var anasi, what audiences see on stage and T V is tr ul y Tr ump, “e ven when he is alone with his famil y … that is him. ” O thers are f ear ful of the president ’s anti-Muslim r hetor ic. Islam’s fr iend was one of many people who were immensel y shoc ked by Tr ump’s election. “ I know one of my fr iends who f elt she couldn’t get out of bed, ” said R ubab Islam, President of the Pakistani S tudents Association (PSA) at UF, speaking about the day af ter the U.S. presidential election. Islam said she belie ved Tr ump, especial l y his c ampaign comments, had been dangerous f or the countr y. S he noted ne ws repor ts of increased antiMuslim hate speec h and hate cr imes dur ing the presidential c ampaign. Ne ver theless, she did not think Tr ump could f easibl y act on many of his suggestions. Then, on Jan. 27, 2017, President Tr ump signed an executive order banning
non-U.S. citiz ens from se ven Muslim-major it y nations. And f or others, Tr ump was initial l y a sign of needed c hange. “ W hat I hoped was that he ’d be moder ate, hoped that a lot of his ideas would be bac ked with e vidence, ” said Bhar at Malhotr a, 19, secondyear biolog y major at UF. Malhotr a who voted f or a w r ite-in c andidate now belie ves there ’s no point in hoping Tr ump c hanges his vie ws. At first, Malhotr a was
AFTER YOU TRAVERSE A CERTAIN THRESHOLD, YOU HAVE TO SAY ‘I CAN NO LONGER JUSTIFY WHAT A MAN IS SAYING. open to Tr ump’s c andidac y. W hile he suppor ted F lor ida S enator Marco R ubio in the ear l y presidential pr imar ies, he f elt Tr ump brought up tr ade issues that had been neglected f or a long time. Malhotr a despised the Clinton tr ade deals of the 1990s, and his exper ience tr aveling in f oreign cities suc h as S hanghai and D ubai and Amer ic an cities suc h as Miami
onl y highlighted his belief that Amer ic an inter national business and tr ade policies were unfair toward Amer ic ans. At first, Malhotr a was not deepl y bothered by Tr ump’s statements. W hile he belie ves social issues are impor tant, he f eels politicians distr act from ser ious polic y questions with “a f e w sweet words. ” Then in June 2016, the P ulse shooting occurred. Watc hing Tr um p seemingl y congr atulate himself on predicting the massacre, Malhotr a f elt he could no longer vote f or Tr ump. “Af ter you tr averse a cer tain threshold, you have to say ‘ I c an no longer justify what a man is say ing. ’” Malhotr a hopes that Tr ump c hanges course on many of his ear l y actions, inc luding his policies, his r hetor ic and his politic al appointments. “And if he doesn’t, I hope Amer ic ans have the abilit y to stand up to him, e ver y second of the way. ” For many Asian Amer ic ans, the next f our years wil l be c har acter iz ed by deep personal concer n, as wel l as concer n f or others potential l y impacted by the Tr ump administr ation. Islam worr ies that while Pakis tan was not inc luded in Tr um p’s immigr ation ban, as a Muslim-major it y nation, it could be added later. But she added, “there ’s hope in that minor ities are al l stic king together already. ”