What does AFS have to say?

On Monday January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump took office. Since this pivotal moment there has been both unabashed excitement and outrage from the United States. As of February 16th Trump has signed 65 executive orders, including everything from ending the “Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws,” to the establishment of “The White House Faith Office.”

Most Americans have thoughts in some form about the choice in leadership. To see where our school stands, a form was sent out to all AFS High School students and faculty about their thoughts on Donald Trump and his inauguration. They were additionally given the option to sit down for an interview. 

Every grade participated in some capacity, with the sophomores answering the most.

When asked if a variety of topics were concerns, the majority selected most of the options. Many of the numbers were similar, but the largest concerns were climate change, followed by immigration and infringements on free speech. 

Two people wrote in ‘DEI,” in the additional concerns section. Of the options that were written, the least popular was “none,” meaning no concerns for any listed, and one person selected this choice. It is hard to tell just how accurate the depiction of the school’s sentiment is, as it was a pretty modest sample size, with many choosing not to participate. 

A section was provided for students to either explain why the things they selected were a concern or weren’t a concern. 

An anonymous teacher said, “My biggest concern here is climate change. There are many wrongs we can right in the future (though we can’t change the harms to individuals that are happening now), but the climate is a crises and we should be doing everything possible to stop warming. Instead, we are going to increase carbon emissions and speed up the death of oceans and pace of climate disasters. It’s a baffling viewpoint.”

An anonymous student wrote, “None of these are concerns in my opinion other than abortion rights but he has said over and over again that it is up to the states which I support… His climate change policy I agree with for the most part (especially stopping off shore wind farms), but his climate policies connect him to the elite which is a concern. My only concern is that he may be a puppet of the elite billionaires and supports project stargate.”

And another anonymous student said, “I’m worried because it’s becoming apparent that the majority of people who voted for him had little to no understanding of the actual policies he proposed. None of the people he appointed have any qualifications and make decisions based on opinion and not fact…”

They were then asked what policies or sentiments interested them. Although it appeared that many options were selected to then be refuted in the text box: reduced grocery prices, exiting the Paris Climate Agreement, and “none” were the most popular choices. Four people also chose to write in their own. There were still a handful of selections that were agreements. 

One anonymous teacher wrote, “All of these policies are regressive–they will adversely affect poor and marginalized Americans immediately and all Americans over time…”

An anonymous student wrote, “I would love grocery prices to go down but I do not believe he will be able to accomplish it. I believe he will make it worse.”

Another anonymous student wrote, “Cutting down on illegal immigration is good but he should allow any legal immigration pathways. Prices are too high for too long. EVs [electric vehicles] still don’t have the infrastructure like chargers in a lot of places, and some people just don’t want EVs and they should be allowed to buy gas cars.”

And another student wrote, ”He is doing tax cuts for the rich and increasing taxes for the poor. He is not helping the working class at all.”

Lastly, they were asked for final comments, here’s what some of them said:

“Undocumented immigrants are being dehumanized, intimidated, racially profiled, mistreated, and treated like criminals. These are people with families, jobs, fears, explanations, lives.”

“Political disagreement and a robust opposition to the party in power are important, non-partisan American values. The extent to which that this administration wields raw power to silence critics and narrow our constitutional freedoms of religion, assembly, speech, etc. will determine whether its power is legitimate.”

“After he incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021, he should never have been allowed to run for President. His inauguration and his presidency are an embarrassment and a danger to our country.”

Four students sat down for extended interviews about their responses.

AXEL ORAVEC ‘27 

What were your feelings about the inauguration?

I didn’t feel proud to be an American. I felt afraid and ashamed. 

Is there anything that personally affects you or those close to you under Trump?

If I ever wanted an abortion it might not be available to me. And I’ve been thinking of going through the process of changing my name and changing my gender, and now I’m like maybe I shouldn’t do that… I was seriously thinking about going through the whole process, especially with the removal of the X gender marker. The whole thing about the argument about trans women going into the women’s bathroom to creep on women, they’re not worried about trans women, they’re worried about men dressing up as women, you’re worried about perverts not trans women.

I’m scared that they’re going to start pushing Christianity in schools. Of course you have your Catholic stores, if it’s clearly stated that it’s a religious school that’s fine… He’s doing this premise of Christianity, which is bullshit, the values of Christianity are peace and love, he’s spreading hate under the guise of Christianity. He didn’t even put his hand on the bible. The whole party is based on fear.

AMY NEWMAN, UPPER SCHOOL ART TEACHER

What were your feelings and sentiments about the Inauguration?

It seems like we are in a very new political era. Some of the things we’ve looked at as norms or procedures for decision making, have been thrown into a new light.

Are there any specific things that you’ve seen that have been impactful in some way to you?

At the inauguration the presence of some out of place and the visibility of some technological and entrepreneurial allies of Trump. There was an attempt to make sure that we as a county saw their dominance and closeness to power… It is clear that there is a lot of activity in making big changes to the federal government. The speed of the executive orders, the volume of executive orders, the pause on established agencies work like USAID. All of that is not totally surprising but it’s happening with a lot of rapidity, there is a lot of change… It does seem like the executive branch, there’s an attempt to consolidate a lot of power in that branch. Which I don’t think is unprecedented in US history but it hasn’t happened for a while I dont think.

Are there any personal impacts that you’re feeling for yourself or for friends and family with the choices you have made thus far?

In terms of the ideology of the left or right direction that I would like to see things move, anything to me that smacks of fascism is very dangerous. I want us to be on high alert to make sure that we are not normalizing things that are fascist

Is there anything I haven’t asked directly that you’ve been thinking about that pertains to any category of policy or general shift in the way we’ve been moving?

I think that it’s going to be really important again for people to take their information from the most stringently, fact checked sources that they can. It’s always going to be really really important. I hope that there are ways of encouraging people to think carefully about where they get their information from.

HENRY GOLDSTEIN ‘27

What were your feelings when you heard about the results?

I knew pretty early on. There’s a county outside of DC in Virginia that has been trending left over the years, and when they finished counting the votes at 8 o’clock at night and it had shifted 9 percent to the right, that’s when I knew. I was upset when I woke up, but I wasn’t really surprised.

How do you think we got to where we are, how did we get to this change of power and change to a different kind of leader?

I think it’s mostly because of the economy and immigration, most people saw Biden as a weak leader on immigration. And even though the economy is great, things were expensive, everyone blamed him for it and tied Kamala Harris to that and that’s why she lost pretty badly… I don’t think this, but a lot of people think that the Republican party has become the party of “common sense.” People saw a lot of the woke stuff and stuff they saw as DEI and they didn’t like that and attributed it to Democrats.

Are there any policies that concern you or concern you in the long run?

It’s not exactly a policy, but I worry how he and his allies like Elon Musk are going to test his power and the constitution. Especially if the Supreme Court does not intervene. I think I worry that things will become less democratic.

RAINY KOREIN ‘27 

What were your feelings and sentiment towards the inauguration?

Its explicit embrace of fascism, the Nazi salute, and the fact that the brave bishop who called these people out on their complete misuse of Christianity as a weapon of hate was then ordered to APOLOGIZE for saying that people deserve mercy sent me into a depression for a week. I felt that this Trump presidency was turning out beyond “bad.” I realized that we were facing a coup. That democracy was not intact and the future was unknown, scary, and out of control. 

With the first few weeks in office, are there any choices or policies that have stood out in some way?

He has taken down all government pages about HIV/AIDS, transgender people, and abortion care. The ICE raids strike me as a thinly veiled racial hate campaign verging on “ethnic cleansing:” they aren’t just taking undocumented people, they are taking native Americans and Puerto Ricans (who all automatically have citizenship because PR is a US territory). The attack on trans people (outlawing gender care for minors, etc) scares me because most of my friends are trans, and because I’m a lesbian and the same people who hate trans people hate gay people. They’re going after trans people first because they’re evidently easier to scapegoat, but I worry gay people will be next. They are already challenging gay marriage, which would leave many gay couples without healthcare or custody of their children. 

Why/how do you think the majority of the country wanted Trump in office?

I think a lot of people like to say “facts over feelings” and glorify themselves as more “logical” than “sentimental lefties.” They play themselves though, because to vote for Trump is to put feelings over facts. The fact is that economic growth has decreased by 2% since Trump’s inauguration. The fact is that no president has the power to individually change the economy, let alone one random American’s financial situation. But, they feel like Trump will stop their financial issues. They feel like Kamala “has no credentials,” despite having an actual background in politics which Trump does not. 

How do you think Trump’s policies will affect you and those you know?

Multiple transgender friends of mine have said that receiving gender care as a teenager saved their life due to the suicidal thoughts that dysphoria can cause. Trump just banned gender care for minors. If he had done that before my friends got theirs, I don’t know if my friends would be alive. There are trans teens out there who won’t be because of this. Banning gender care isn’t protecting teens, it’s just putting the teens who this regime hates in danger. 

Any comments you’d like to share about anything you haven’t touched on?

The continuing attack on abortion rights is shameful and disgusting. How many more teenage rape victims must die in childbirth before the law remembers what it realized in 1973: forced childbirth is wrong. The life of living people whose families and friends will miss them is more important than a fetus whose parents can’t even care for it. Anti-choice people either have a grave misunderstanding of science or simply believe women deserve to die.