During a period of political labels and polarization, University of Idaho student Justin Marino remains unaffiliated with either of the major U.S. political parties, as both are too self-serving for his taste.
Despite this, Marino voted for Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
“I was a fan of Donald Trump from the beginning … I am eager to see what he can do,” Marino said.
Initially, Marino said he rooted for Trump because of his entertaining nature, but continued to follow the Republican frontrunner because he wasn’t the typical candidate.
“Trump isn’t a cookie cutter politician … I can vote for somebody who’d be controlled by political action committees or vote for somebody who kind of has the freedom to follow their heart and do what they think is best for the country,” Marino said.
Marino, like many others, was surprised when Trump won the election because of various predictions by media outlets that showed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton winning by a large majority.
“I voted for Donald Trump and I was laughing because there was no way he was winning. My perception of the election was a joke,” Marino said.
Marino said he remains hopeful for the Trump administration and thinks he will surprise his critics.
“I don’t have any preconceived negative feelings towards him,” Marino said. “I feel like he can do a good job. He’s surrounding himself with decent, smart people, so there’s no reason not to be optimistic.”
Throughout the next four years, Marino said he hopes to see the economy strengthen as well as the military, but mostly he hopes that Trump can work toward healing the internal conflict within the country and unify everyone.
“Right now, there is so much divisiveness amongst the people, and I think that if we can come together to work past the issues we have regarding one another that the U.S. can actually be made into a better place,” Marino said.
Although Marino said he would like to see the people rally together, he understands why people have such a hard time supporting Trump, especially given the unpleasant comments he has made in regard to women, minorities and people with disabilities.
“He is a little bit insensitive to different groups of people in terms of what he says … I think that, sometimes, he isn’t very thoughtful and I do think that oftentimes, he is being misconstrued, but there are those few times when he has been blatantly offensive with no excuse,” Marino said.
Marino said he hopes in time, people can look past the offensive remarks and give Trump a fair chance to lead.
“No matter what Donald Trump has done thus far to offend you or anybody else, he’s now the president of the U.S. and until he fails you as your president, give him a fair shot and be open-minded,” Marino said.
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @heersinkolivia