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Donald Trump’s presidential election win brings fear and joy to Philly area
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Donald Trump’s presidential election win brings fear and joy to Philly area

This was not the outcome he expected or wanted in any way. But on a day when the election results sent a mix of enthusiasm and concern across the region, the Rev. Cory Jones said he and the 1,000 members of Tabernacle Baptist Church in South Jersey had no choice but to accept them.

So supporters of former President Donald Trump celebrated a margin-breaking victory True to his expectations, Jones was calling his mostly Black congregation to pray.

members of his church He said he viewed Trump’s victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris with “deep sadness, anger and disappointment.”

“We have problems with this man,” he told churchgoers Sunday, “but if he gets elected, all we can do is pray. There’s a power beyond him.” The Burlington church planned to hold a service Wednesday night “to allow people to express how they feel,” and we will pray, too.

Across the river in Bucks County Preparing to turn to TrumpThe result was viewed quite differently by members of Susan Webber’s Bible study group. “Everybody was so excited,” said Webber, who lives in Newtown. “They just thought, ‘This is who God wants to be in control.’”

Emotional reactions to Trump’s victory over Harris appeared to parallel the divide between the two major parties.

In Philadelphia, where some said they stayed up until the wee hours of the morning and watched the results in disbelief, dozens of high school students chanted “Too young” as they walked out of classes toward a political system that disempowered them. vote, old enough to be impressed,”.

Some adults interviewed in the city said they were afraid of what the next four years might bring. “Everything is going to change,” Juanita Serrano, 37, said in Mayfair with her 9-year-old daughter Hilda. “Women will not have the same freedoms,” she said, refers to abortion rights.

Franklin Noble, 58, of Broad and Erie, said he “doesn’t like” Trump getting a second term in office and expressed fear for his ability to pay rent under another Trump administration.

After spending some time without housing, Noble said he got a new flat through the housing assistance program and was “trying to rehabilitate himself.” Now he is afraid that everything will disappear.

“Prices are already very high, I don’t think they will drop further under Trump,” Noble said.

“The last four years have been very challenging for people,” said Jones, the Tabernacle Baptist pastor, which contributed to Trump’s victory. He said housing and food prices are increasing rapidly, but wages are not at the same level.

“People are struggling,” he said, but added that it would be wrong to place all the blame on President Joe Biden and Harris.

“I think we live in a world that lacks research and critical thinking skills,” he said.

According to exit polls According to the survey conducted on behalf of CNN, ABC News and NBC News, 24% of black men supported Trump; This rate was twice as many as those who supported the Republican candidate in 2020.

But Jones said Trump’s victory was “hard to swallow” for some Black residents “when you’re talking about things like police immunity, along with a group of people who have been historically abused.”

Trump’s victory is cause for concern in the LGBTQ community.

Sitting on a bench in South Philadelphia, Anna Farino, a 34-year-old transgender woman, said she felt as if she hadn’t stopped crying.

“I will never be myself,” he said. “What if I can’t get my hormones, what if I can’t get healthcare in general?”

“I feel numb,” said fellow therapist Bridget Horan. “I feel like I’m falling apart.”

Horan primarily treats low-income transgender and queer individuals and worries about how potential funding cuts will affect patients.

But the mob at Renzulli’s Twin Smoke Shoppe on 10th Street was celebrating Trump’s victory.

On Sunday, the store closed the street for a massive “Trump Rally of Italian Americans.” All they could feel now was pride.

“It’s joyful,” said Gary Guaraldo, a retired Philly police officer who now works as a cop in Penn.

“I actually went out of my house and told my wife that ‘the air smells better.’ Because we won.”

Nearly a dozen smokers filling the store’s leather chairs and couches shrugged at Trump’s authoritarian language.

“They started it,” said Anthony Renzulli, a Democrat. “How can you call people ‘Nazis and fascists’? “This is ridiculous.”

For Feme Oluko, 34, of Northeast Philly, The result was a clear disappointment; He voted for Kamala Harris and has been voting for Democratic candidates his entire life.

“His policies were going to benefit all the people who were suffering, the poor people,” said Oluko, who moved to the United States from Haiti in the 1980s. “Trump looked more like an angry person.”

Despite the loss of his preferred candidate, the Northeast Philadelphia resident sees no path forward for the country other than both sides trying to reach an agreement.

“You just need to come together and unite,” Oluko said.

This means Oluko expects Trump to tone down his incendiary rhetoric, even though the former president has shown no indication that he plans to do so.

“It makes people angry when you talk like that,” he added.