As Inauguration Day rapidly approaches, political organizations on campus are preparing for the transition of power on Jan. 20.
Jesse Milston, a sophomore double majoring in political science and history and secretary of College Republicans at Pitt, said he plans to attend the inauguration along with other club members.
“I’m going because as an officer of College Republicans, and someone who put a lot of work into the election and worked for a bunch of different campaigns, including the Trump campaign, it felt right to go and see the fruits of my labor and see like-minded people,” Milston said.
As for during the presidency, Milston said he looks forward to Trump’s foreign policy and style of leadership in office.
Trump claimed throughout his campaign that he would end the war in Ukraine and in Gaza. During his previous administration, Trump strongly supported Israel. More recently, he has expressed interest in annexing Greenland and taking control of the Panama Canal for “economic security.”
“To finally have him in office and be able to make the changes and decisions that are needed is something I’m very excited for,” Milston said. “There’s a lot of stuff that really needs to get done between the budgetary talks and about what deportations will look like. I think it’s going to be tough to figure that all out, but I am excited to see how this Republican government can tackle these issues.”
During his campaign, Trump pledged to carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history and has said he plans to carry it out by deploying the National Guard.
JJ Martinez, a junior Russian and political science major and public relations director for College Republicans, also plans to attend the inauguration.
“I am very excited because I think that we, as officers, have worked very, very hard to get in this kind of position that we did,” Martinez said. “It’s very fulfilling.”
Like Milston, Martinez also said she is looking forward to the implementation of Trump’s foreign policy.
“I think that this is a step in the right direction, as somebody that has been personally affected by a lot of the world events that have transpired,” Martinez said.
On the day of the inauguration, College Democrats at Pitt plans to participate in the MLK Day of Service, according to co-president Sam Podnar, a junior politics and philosophy major.
“We figured that that was a more effective thing to do than to tune into the inauguration,” Podnar said. “No one that I know cares to attend the inauguration, so we really just want to focus our efforts on Pitt and do a little bit of service to kick off the year.”
Podnar said that though the outcome of the election was not what they hoped for, they do not intend to go away anytime soon.
“We put in a lot of hours last semester working very hard to rally Democratic support on campus,” Podnar said. “And even though things didn’t turn out the way we wanted to nationally, we’re still fighting very, very hard, and we intend to keep doing things like service and volunteering for local elections.”
Though unsure what to expect from the Trump administration, Podnar said she expects that if he fulfills his promises, there will be “a lot of chaos.”
“I am particularly concerned about his promises on immigration,” Podnar said. “I really don’t expect things like the cost of living to go down. I really don’t expect job growth to happen. Who knows what’s going to happen, but I don’t think it’ll be anything that helps the American people.”