Shortly after president-elect Trump’s win over Clinton, a call for a vote recount was made. Reminiscent to that of the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the people felt that their votes were not represented correctly. Like Gore, Clinton ended with a higher popular vote count, yet like Bush, Trump was able to secure the 270 electoral votes to claim victoryand the mantle as the new president of the United States. A recount was commissionedand as it went on, the chances of the tide turning to Hillary’s favor diminished as more and more states validated Trump’s victory. Soon after, with the general public coming to terms with Trump’s win, a new rumor on the horizon once again threatens Trump’s legitimacy as president-elect.

It began when rumors that the Russian government worked behind the scenes, hacking in favor of Trump to help him gain an edge. In recent news, however, numerousgovernment agencies have come out, confirming the Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Once again, Trump has come under fire about the validityof his status as president-elect and the Democratic Party and many others against Trump have become relentless in using this to turn it into their favor and possibly oust Trump as the next president. During the 2016 election, both Clinton and Trump held no punches, using anything and everything to undermine one another and paint one another as the inferior candidate. Clinton found herself caught in a nasty scandal, regarding her involvement in using private emails in government servers, allowing her to decide what she would disclose and what she would keep to herself. When revealed, Clinton’s popularity as a candidate tanked and her public image was heavily damaged. It is believed by many U.S. government officials,that Russia played a pivotal role, hackingClinton’s servers and then disclosing the information of her doings to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks has denied these allegations of the Russians providing such information.

As investigations continue, Trump went onto his Twitter feed, launching into a tirade, claiming this as a “political witch hunt” and the Democratic Party out to delegitimize his presidency. Trump repeatedly expressed his desire to come to good terms with Russiaand Putin and was received well by the Russian president, but not so much by other politicians. In fact, Trump’s relationship with Putin has been under close scrutiny especiallynow with the allegations of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections. As the investigations continue, and the briefing between intelligence agencies and Trump nears, it seems unclear as the entire election and even up to now has been certainly an eventful ride.

<Harrison Park John F. Kennedy HS 12th Grade>