By: Brian Trainor
The midterm elections are only a week and a half away and if you can vote, you must. The 2026 midterm elections are an incredibly important point for this country, with the potential to change the entire political landscape. In 2024 when Donald Trump was elected into office, Republicans took majorities of both the House and Senate. This gave the newly elected president carte blanche to do whatever he so pleases. What has transpired since has turned The United States into the laughing stock of the entire globe. Not to mention it’s turning our country into a political, social, and economical powder keg. The current problem lies in the Republican party who do not hold the best interest of the American people, even themselves, ignorantly. The lies spread by our President, Vice President, Press Secretary, “Secretary of War”, Secretary of Health, as well as the director of the FBI have been detrimental. We are told that known truths are lies. While simultaneously fed lie after lie disguised as the truth. The party who built their brand on America first have proven their real intentions, of stepping on America first on their way to the top.
At the Republican National Convention in early September Donald Trump got on stage and gave a speech regarding how well the country was doing under Republican leadership in order to rally his base and garner support for the party. To start, Trump claimed that there has been over “$20 Trillion” invested into the US during Trump’s second term. This was clearly not true because according to the White House’s own website there has only been $11.3 trillion invested into the country which they ironically tout as “The Trump Effect”. He clearly believes he is worth the extra $9 Trillion. Another laughable point he made was his classic “More Americans are working than ever before.” which frankly could be said for any President ever. The statistic shows the correlation between population growth and employment and if the population increases the amount of working Americans will. University of Michigan Professor of Economics Justin Wolfers discussed this at length with Ali Velshi, of MS NOW.
Trump then went on to claim that Republicans won three elections in a row, citing 2016, 2020, and 2024. It is abundantly clear that Trump lost to Biden in 2020 and the January 6 insurrection followed his refusal to accept that fact. He capped it all off with references to his ballroom which he claimed was going to use “Zero tax dollars” to construct. On the contrary, $330 million of taxpayer money was used towards construction costs of the estimated 600 million dollar ballroom.
Last but certainly not least he ended with his patented claims that he delivered on every campaign promise he had made to the American people, which is just patently false. Going as far back as his 2016 campaign, his big overarching claim as well as one of the most famous political sound bites of all time, his infamous idea of building a wall and having Mexico pay for it clearly did not come about. Trump also vowed to end the fighting in Ukraine and end inflation. At the time of this article he has been in office for 642 days and both the war and the economic crisis are in full swing.
It is clear that the person who should be looking out for our best interests the most only cares about his own. The problem isn’t just at the top, the foundation is rotted to its core. We have the director of the FBI lying to the American people about Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that he in fact did not traffic young girls to elites. This echoes Trump’s own claims of downplaying his relationship with the deceased sex trafficker. The general care about the health of the American people is also nonexistent. RFK claimed that we were lied to about the Covid-19 pandemic which has since claimed the lives of over 1.2 million Americans. RFK claims that we were lied to about the effectiveness of masks and vaccines which seems absurd in retrospect because we lived through the thick of it. These are all things these people have testified before Congress about and are just patently lying under oath. Imagine what they would say in public to the American people to gain the trust of desperate people.
There has been enough evidence of this corruption throughout the past 2 years of Donald Trump’s second term in office. He was impeached twice in his first term, he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records by a New York Jury, and on top of that he was found liable for sexual abuse against E. Jean Carroll who has repeatedly accused Trump of raping her. When is enough, enough?
It is time for a change in the country and since we have boiled down to a two party system it’s time for the pendulum to swing back the other way. Gov. Josh Shapiro, who actively fights to protect the rights of all PA residents is up for reelection. Any politician that has ties to Donald Trump at any level of government, whether they are incumbent or challenging, if Trump has endorsed them they no longer have your best interest at heart. The list includes but is not limited to Stacy Garrity who is currently making a push for governor against Josh Shapiro, as well as Scott Perry the US Rep who is running for reelection against Janelle Stelson. Voters who back these candidates deserve to know who they are really voting for. That being said, get informed! Change only happens when we vote for Representatives, Senators, and Governors, so it’s time to start asking, what have your politicians done for you?
Brian Trainor is a Senior English major with a minor in Philosophy. He is currently enrolled in the 4+1 M.Ed. program with the hopes of teaching after he graduates in 2027. His interests include classic literature, classic rock and all things Philadelphia sports.
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