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Conservative and liberal ASU students discuss President Trump's first 90 days

ASU student political leaders split on approval of the administration's progress in its first 90 days

ASU College Republicans (left) and the ASU Young Democrats (right). 

ASU College Republicans (left) and the ASU Young Democrats (right). 


President Donald Trump has taken swift action to fulfill many of his campaign promises, finding success in some areas, and failure in others.  

Eyes from around the nation have been following the Trump presidency closely, and with less than 10 days until the completion of the president's first 90 days in office ASU students have taken positions on the Trump administration.

The Republican Perspective

Political science and education junior and ASU College Republicans President Jennifer Custis said the Trump presidency has been "extremely successful so far."

“(President Trump) has gotten America back as a strong nation in the world ..." Custis said. She said she likes how the Trump administration is approaching foreign policy.

Custis and other collegiate conservatives were part of the successful campaign effort in Arizona to elect Trump to the White House, where Trump won 49.5 percent of the vote.

“When we got back to school, everyone in College Republicans was focused and on the Trump train,” Custis said. “He became the nominee over the summer, and for the most part everyone agreed with the majority of his platform."

Custis said that some of the president’s domestic agenda was more metaphorical as opposed to tangible policy implementation.

“The wall, I took it with a grain of salt," Curtis said. "It spoke to me as more of a message that we will be strong and secure at the border. I think the wall was a metaphor for keeping America safe.”

Custis said Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court was a major victory.

“I’m definitely happy with the Neil Gorsuch appointment," Custis said. "He was always known as a constitutionalist. The College Republicans are happy that the president put someone in there to uphold the Constitution."

On healthcare legislation and the Affordable Care Act, Custis said the College Republicans simply want to see something other than Obamacare.

The Republican healthcare replacement legislation was mostly hampered by a lack of cohesion from within the GOP on what they wanted in the bill.

Custis said a strong foreign policy approach has worked in the past and would do well in the current state of affairs. She said that overall she believes that the President has been successful so far and is making America strong again.

Communications sophomore Greg Lukomski said he believes that Trump has been doing a great job, especially on foreign policy.

"We need to suppress the the human rights violators and those who threaten our country and security objectives," Lukomski said. "The Syria strikes and the MOAB drop on ISIS are perfect examples of the administration carrying out with that."

We're having a blast at the Donald Trump rally! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Students4Trump #SilentMajority

A post shared by ASU College Republicans (@asucollegerepublicans) on

The Democratic Perspective 

Economics freshman Tyler Jones, said he believes that the president is taking the country in the wrong direction.

"Its gone about as negatively as it can go," Jones said. "He has gone against what he said he would do, help the American people, through proven ineptitude." 

Political science sophomore and Vice President of the ASU Young Democrats Jesse Avalos, said that he believes the administration has been hypocritical and rash in its policy decisions so far; ultimately not successful.

“With the Supreme Court appointment of Gorsuch, it’s been tradition in the Senate to have supermajority confirmations for Supreme Court nominees," Avalos said. "This is something Republicans have defended repeatedly over and over before and they broke their own tradition."

Avalos focused on what he described as a lack of evaluation that’s been occurring with the administration. He criticized the administration's two-for-one approach for cutting regulations, which would cut two regulatory rules for every one enacted. 

Avalos said he thinks the administration needs to think about the effects of its policies and evaluate the consequences.

“Republicans have vehemently opposed opening our borders for Syrian refugees, yet you are basically incentivizing more people to seek refuge,” Avalos said in reference to U.S. air strikes on Syrian air bases.

“For North Korea I think the President needs to evaluate what they’re doing and why they are doing it," Avalos said. "We need to make sure we aren’t playing with fire."

Overall Avalos said that he is not confident in the job the Trump administration has done so far.

“I don’t think he’s been doing a great job. That will serve a democratic resurgence in 2018,” Avalos said. “He has not been making a greater America.”


Reach the reporter at rkeys1@asu.edu or follow @raymond_keys on Twitter.

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