Around 1:30 a.m., Donald Trump secured Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, bringing his total to 264.
Trump was originally known as a businessman, reality TV star, author and public disbeliever in political correctness. However, when Trump formally announced his presidential candidacy June 16, 2015 from Trump Tower in New York City, he declared the campaign slogan to be “Make America Great Again.” Now he will have his chance to prove it.
Major platforms of the Trump campaign have included the fight against ISIS, ensuring a conservative Supreme Court, maintaining gun rights, boosting the economy through tax cuts and trade deals and stopping illegal immigration.
Under Trump’s Plan to Make America Safe and Respected Again, the country will grow the military and collaborate with Arab allies in the Middle East to fight against ISIS. The United States will defeat “the ideology of radical Islamic terrorism” just as the country won the Cold War, according to Trump’s website.
“We will completely rebuild our depleted military, and the countries that we protect, at a massive loss, will be asked to pay their fair share,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention.
Trump said at the first presidential debate that he was “very proud” to be endorsed by the National Rifle Association, and he will work to protect gun rights, including ending gun free zones at school and military bases.
Under Trump’s economic plan, the nation will create 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years. He also plans to reform policies with a pro-growth tax plan and an America First trade policy. Reducing illegal immigration will start on day one and set the country on the track to putting Americans first, according to Trump’s website.
“We will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful beautiful southern border wall,” Trump said during a speech on immigration in Arizona in August.
Mexico will pay for the wall, he said. This plan exists to “serve the best interests of America and its workers,” according to Trump’s website.
His running mate, Gov. Mike Pence, is the most conservative vice-presidential candidate in the last 40 years, according to a FiveThirtyEight rating of candidates’ ideologies. Pence said in July he was “absolutely” in sync with Trump’s Mexican wall proposal, and that Mexico was “absolutely” going to pay for it.
Pence and Trump are both strong supporters of the pro-life movement and have come out against Planned Parenthood.
“For me, faith informs my life,” Pence said in the vice presidential debate. “It all, for me, begins with cherishing the dignity, the worth, the value of every human life.”
In March, Trump said women who seek abortions should be subjected to “some sort of punishment.” However, he later recanted the statement, although he still remains pro-life.
Only time will tell what the next four years hold.
