Hopes, Fears, and Concerns: What do Bard Teens think of Trump’s Second Term?

Robin Fuller ’27

It has been less than a month since Donald Trump was sworn in as the president of the United States for the second time. Since then, he has signed a burst of executive orders affecting the Department of Education, gender-affirming care, birthright citizenship, and more. During his inaugural speech on January 20, he claimed that his goal was working towards “a complete restoration of America.”

The majority of current Bard students were between the ages of 7- 11 when Trump was sworn into office for the first time in 2017 as the 45th president of the United States. Most of us were too young to understand the full extent of what was going on. “I was very young in 2016/17, so I didn’t know much about what he was doing, I just knew he was bad news,” Lee Clarke-Gercke ‘27 says. As an 11 year old in 2020, I didn’t fully understand why everyone was so relieved and elated when Biden succeeded Trump as the 46th president.

Adults around us, such as our parents and teachers, were our sources of knowledge about the political state of the US. Based on their experience during Trump’s first term, we formed our ideas and opinions about Trump as children.Now, as teenagers and young adults that find themselves in the same position as Adult Americans in 2016, what do we think about Trump? What if, as a kid, Donald Trump was all you knew about America’s political landscape? What if Trump’s decisions are not just scary because of how they affect us but also because of how normalized they have become in the media and how desensitized we are to this behavior that it no longer surprises us? Several of us have tried to educate ourselves on Trump's presidency to fully understand his intentions. “I’ve tried to do as much research as I can without stressing myself out,” Clarke Greene ’27 said. As we get older and more knowledgeable, we can slowly begin to understand how Trump affects us as young adults. Here are some thoughts Bard students have about Trump’s second term.

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“One of the things that I am more concerned about is his climate policies,” Calder Wysong ’27 stated. “It is very pro-fossil fuels, I haven’t seen much support towards eco- friendly forms of energy. He has said in many interviews this slogan that he has: Drill, Baby, Drill. Things like that are very concerning to me as someone who’s family is involved in climate justice and climate advocacy.” After Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement for the first time during his first term, Biden rejoined during his presidency. Now, Trump has filed an executive order to plan a withdrawal for a second time in 2026. The aforementioned slogan “Drill Baby Drill” which Trump has used on several occasions is exemplary of his commitment towards creating a pro-fossil fuel energy system. Carbon Brief refers to in-depth climate science research and according to the 2024 analysis, Trump's proposed policies could pump an extra 4 billion metric tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere by 2030. The earth’s global temperature is suspected to increase by 1.5% by 2030, and that is without Trump’s planned environmental policies. Not to mention the fact that 2024 was the hottest year on record.

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“My biggest concern is reproductive rights,” Clarke Greene ’27 states. “ I hear about certain states imposing laws in which if you perform an abortion, you can be executed. The main thing I wanted Kamala to win for was because she would not rule out all these laws.” Reproductive rights have become a big target for Trump’s second presidency. His mounting threats on abortion give little doubt that he is going to attempt a nation-wide ban on abortion as well as limiting other reproductive rights such as access to birth control. Reproductive rights is one of the most important topics for many voters during the election, as for many people it was a big indicator for who they would vote for.  While many claim abortions are best for U.S. society, banning abortions will negatively affect the healthcare of women across the country. Procedures that are medically labeled as abortions don't always involve fetuses, but also possible fatal diseases growing in a woman’s womb such as liver disease and cancer. As Clarke says, “It’s not about protecting the kids, it's about controlling women. And if it were about the kids, they would be ruling out gun laws.”

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“I am personally worried about him not recognizing transgender people and banning transgender health care or at least trying his best to. I think in his 2016 presidency he had a lot of executive orders against gay and transgender people, especially against using words in schools relating to the LGBTQ community like ‘homosexual’ or ‘gender’ or ‘nonbinary,’” Lee explained. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed in Florida in March 2022, banning classroom discussion and instruction on gender and sexual orientation, is associated with the subject of banning LGBTQ words/people from certain spaces. Project 2025, what many are calling the “right wing wish list,” also intends to do significant harm to the LGBTQ community. Aroadmap for the Trump presidency proposed by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 first became widespread knowledge in 2024 during Trump’s presidential campaign against Kamala Harris. Since then, it was deemed as the eventual doom that Trump’s second term would bring for young people and minorities. 

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“As an immigrant girl from a low-income family, Trump is bound to negatively affect my life in several ways. A big concern is him taking away financial aid, because that is a big thing my family lives off of, and him taking it away will infringe upon life, as well as the future I will have and my potential careers.” claimed Adrina Rokib. The Financial Aid program sets out to help low-income families in many facets of living such as food, housing, and supplies. Because of how heavily these families rely on federal welfare programs, taking it away is bound to negatively affect the future of the community. For teenagers and young adults, an important part of the Financial Aid Program is education funding, to send members of low-income families to college. However, in January Trump froze nearly all federal grants and loans, which spawned mass fear for the future of FAFSA, which is “Free Application for Federal Student Aid.” FAFSA helps low-income students pay for college, especially Black and Latino students, who will likely face the worst consequences. This may include a significant decrease in the college enrollment among people of color, leading to higher rates of unemployment, lower earnings and higher debt according to the Center for American Progress. 

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Several individuals have noted that Trump's presidency set a new precedent for who by federal law is allowed to be president. Trump became the first president to be convicted of a felony between January and March of last year. The fact that he is allowed to run for president again even after this has worried a lot of people. Avalon Akahoho ‘27 said, “I’m worried about all the irreversible stuff Trump is going to do. That he is going to send us back in time, so to speak. He’s going to attempt to undo a lot of progress and make the next four years very hard to sit through. It really speaks for the type of people they are willing to let into office. And potentially Trump won’t be the end of it, because he is building a large following.” Avalon’s fears are shared by many as well, since it was published that in Trump’s first week in office he reversed nearly 78 of former President Biden’s executive orders.

Almost all interviewees expressed a concern for not knowing more about Trump’s future presidential plans and in their final statements expressed a will for young people to educate themselves about Trump’s presidential campaign without harming their mental health. Trump’s presidency has created uncertainty around the future of young adults at Bard and in the U.S. However, this only empowers us to be more politically involved as more of us gain the right to vote. This election was the first time most of Gen Z gained the right to vote, and the voting power of Gen Z is most likely why the election results were so close. Students, as well as adults, are encouraged to know who and what they are voting for before doing so. “If you voted for him [Trump], I hope you will get exactly what you voted for,” Clarke says.