By Lexus Yamashiro | Staff Writer

Word on the Street: What do you think of Donald Trump being the new president-elect of the United States?

Jason Rutkowski 
Age: 19
Hometown: Salt Lake, Hawai‘i
Major: Botany
Did he vote?: No

“Oh God is it horrible! The world is gonna burn, and I get to watch it burn by stupidity instead of corruption. … But still, it should be funny. I mean … luckily I’m a guy so … they’re still probably gonna deport my a**.”

Mana Toa-Delage 
Age: 18
Home: Tahiti
Major: Marketing
Did he vote?: No

“I think having Donald Trump as president has both pros and cons, but for me personally, I’d rather have someone who is a better person. Donald Trump would be good for the economy of the United States, but I just think that he’s a very like … straight up person and has bad reputation as a bad person. I think that it’s going to be hard to accept what he does; I feel that if he keeps his ways that the morals of people will change to alter towards his morals and values, and I feel that the Black Lives Matters protest is going to be worse because not only did he get less votes from minorities, but also because he said racist things and he has been against people of racists. I think it’s just gonna be bad for society as a whole and divide people more. But economically speaking and globally speaking, I think it’s good for the economy. I just hope that whatever he does and whatever he decides that it’s good for everyone and not just for himself.”

Diamond Jarrett 
Age: 19
Hometown: Kailua, Hawai‘i
Major: Nursing
Did you vote?: Yes

“I’m shocked I guess, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad thing. I don’t think we’re gonna have [a] World War because of him; I think his intentions are good, but he’s not a good person, I guess. He’s a good businessman, so I guess that’s leaning on his side more, and I feel that we’re gonna create more alliances with foreign countries because he’s done so much work in foreign countries so I think that our alliances will be stronger.”

Cinnia Park 
Age: 23
Hometown: Korea
Major: Marketing
Did you vote?: No

“Well I think that there is going to be big changes, of course. I don’t always agree with what he thinks, but since he is [the] elected president, I think it’s worth giving or watching him in the presidential status. And I also understand that in the government, there are things that he wants to change but in order to change those, different bills have to be passed and it has to go through the Senate, the House, and the Congress so necessarily what he wants to do is not the finalized deal. For me right now, I just wanna see how it plans out. Also coming from an international student perspective, although I’ve graduated, I’m still technically doing something called an OPT (Optional Practical Training) for international students after they graduate. They are allowed one year of stay to work. I know the main thing that came up is that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz wanted to eliminate the OPT program completely for the F1 students, and an article came up yesterday as well in regards to this, and they feel that the international students who come here with the purpose of working here and staying here actually take away American jobs. For me I disagree with that because students do come here, well international students come here, and they actually better the economy because they bring the money and because they have to pay the international students’ rate. It actually helps the school by them paying more tuition, and if that work eligibility is waived or if they actually get rid of that work eligibility, then I think that the students are not going to come to America just for the sake of staying for four years or two years, study, and leave. So I feel like that’s going to have an effect, and for me, that’s personally the main thing I’m keeping an eye out because I am in the international student place. To be honest I feel that there are things that happen that have already been preset. You see on social media a lot now that years ago, even the cartoon series ‘The Simpsons’ have predicted that Trump was going to become the president. Even the electoral map, if you look at ‘The Simpsons’ versus our actually electoral map they look identical. For me I actually feel that it was a selected choice previously versus an elected choice, and if that’s the case, I feel like there’s a reason behind it. So I’m just careful, treading carefully, but also watching what kind of changes are to be made and why this came to be.”

Shon Ancheta 
Age: 43
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Major: Kinesiology and Physical Therapy
Did he vote?: Yes

“I voted for him. The reason why I voted for him and not Hillary is I feel I was voting for the lesser of two evils in regards to such things as our current foreign policy. The reason why I didn’t go with Hillary Clinton, although some of her things made sense, was the fact that her foreign policy initially stated that she would set up a ‘no-fly zone’ over Syria, making Syria and Russia unable to fly military planes over the country. Syria is working in conjunction with Russia. We are supposed to be working in conjunction with Russia, so if we now turn Syria into a ‘no-fly zone,’ do we not now make Russia an enemy of us again? … When I look at Trump, the reason why I voted for Trump was for the fact that if we look at America as a whole, we are a capitalist society; we are not a democratic society, we do not get to choose every single thing we have. … Because he’s a business man, he’s owned many businesses and he’s built and run into bankruptcy many times over, but yet we never hear of him going broke. He always has personal money, he knows how to sustain himself on a global level, he’s got multiple international corporations under his name; he knows how to make money. America needs to learn how to make money. We are broke, we have people who are living in destitute. If you constantly teach people how to fish, you never have to worry about them eating. I can only hope that some of the business practices Donald Trump has could somehow fall into place here in the United States. We need to stop receiving handouts per se, although I am a scholarship receiver, I would like to hope that Donald Trump remembers that his first business was literally through money that was given to him. As long as he can remember that, I think we will be in a better place. … I think [Clinton has] been in an established government for too long since the ’70s. … She’s an old cow in the sense that she’s gonna follow what’s been the standard norm for the last almost 40 years now. I think because Trump is different, like how Ronald Reagan for example was different; he had no experience in politics, he was a movie actor. But with the right cabinet, the right people that were willing to help, the House of Representatives, the state, Congress in general, they made things happen. I think by setting something new forward, we might be able to see the same thing again, and that’s why I voted for Trump.”