With Tuesday, April 29, marking the first 100 days of President Donald Trump ‘s second term in office, a recent New York Times/Siena poll was conducted implying that his administration’s actions and policies are not being well received by many voters – a sentiment which was reflected in the attitudes of many SUNY Suffolk students here on the Ammerman Campus.
“I think it’s been pretty rough; the stock market crash was unfortunate, but it turned around pretty quick,” said Christian Giamundo, a second year SUNY Suffolk student, referring to President Trump’s second first 100 days in office.
“The tariffs are a little ridiculous, but we will see where it goes” Giamundo added.
According to the New York Times/Siena College poll conducted between April 21 to April 24, 42 percent of voters approved of President Trump’ s handling of his presidential duties while 54 percent disapproved.
Some other key takeaways from the 913 registered voters polled nationwide were:
- 54 percent felt that President Trump had “gone too far” in his handling of the United States’ political and economic systems.
- More voters opposed President Trump’s executive orders ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs as well as funding, than those who supported them.
- 54 percent supported President Trump’s deportation of people living in the United States illegally but overall, 51 percent of the voters disapproved of his overall handling of immigration while 47 percent approved.
- 47 percent expressed the desire to vote Democrat in next year’s midterm elections as opposed to the 44 percent who said they would vote Republican.
Reflecting the poll’s overall somewhat, subdued tone, was Ever Levesque, a sophomore at SUNY Suffolk, who said, “I am black, I am a woman, and I see this stuff and it’s freaky”
Expressing her fears regarding President Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the Department of Education, Levesque continued, “I am here on funding so I don’t know what will happen with my tuition specifically, but I have used the Pell Grant so its freaky.”
Giamundo, on the other hand, was optimistic about President Trump’s proposed Department of Education budget cuts saying, “I think it has needed reform or replacement for a long time now, it’s pretty bad honestly.”
Along with federal budget cuts, another political issue of significant importance to the students at the SUNY Suffolk Ammerman Campus, which was also echoed by the New York Times/Siena poll, was President Trump’s immigration policies.
Alex Ramirez Mejia, a sophomore at SUNY Suffolk explained how the President’s immigration policies have directly affected him, his family and people he knows.
“When Trump first got elected, my mom still was not a citizen, and she was in the process of getting all of her paperwork done and when he got elected and said he was shutting down all those immigration policies I was scared,” explained Ramirez Mejia.
“My mom had been waiting for so long and seeing that he was going to get rid of all those immigration programs I was devastated thinking about what if she got her appointment cancelled like I had read others had gotten theirs cancelled,” said Ramirez Mejia.
After five years of going through the immigration process as well as hiring an immigration lawyer, Ramirez Mejia’s mother’s appointment was not cancelled, and she did receive her citizenship
Additionally on the topic of immigration, another male, sophomore, SUNY Suffolk student, who requested anonymity out of his fear of the current administration’s deportation of dissidents, conveyed a similar displeasure with the Trump administration’s immigration policies but also added that he believed Congress would not fully support the president.
The anonymous student, said, “Immigration is at the forefront of this administration’s policies but what comforts me is a simple fact; the money required for these policies would have to be money that comes from Congress and it is very unlikely that Congress would want to allocate untold billions of dollars to transition people in an action that would hurt our country’s economy.”
As was exhibited by the New York Times/Siena poll, another issue SUNY Suffolk Ammerman Campus students found relevant and disapproved of President Trump’s handling of was his executive orders defunding and ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
“Removal of DEI programs will make the already existing struggle for marginalized and underrepresented groups to succeed increasingly more difficult,” said Isabella Mullen, a freshman at SUNY Suffolk.
“President Trump should push the more positive narrative of empowerment that we’ve had since our country’s founding instead of tearing it down and restricting people” Mullen voiced.
Having made note of the upcoming midterm elections, the anonymous male student best summed up the historical significance of President Trump’s first 100 days, as well as his administration’s future, by saying, “We are living through history at the current moment and hopefully it plays out right, I like to think that we as individuals have agency in it all.”
