This election, Trump won big. Not only did he secure 312 electoral votes and sweep all 7 swing states, but he also achieved a trifecta of government control.
Harris couldn't smile anymore, only Biden was grinning—who else understands the joy of a worker clocking out?
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Melania: Ugh, so annoying. I have to move from a big mansion to the staff quarters again.
Trump, the chosen worker, a workaholic legend who worked 52 days straight.
Although he won't officially move into the White House until early next year, Trump's Day 1 plan after taking office has already been widely publicized by major media outlets.
Trump even created a new department for his good comrade and fellow workaholic Musk: the Department of Government Efficiency.
Remember the horror of Twitter's mass layoffs? Soon the U.S. government will start too 😅
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Trump's Day 1 Plan
The Day 1 plan Trump proposed during his campaign includes mass deportations of immigrants, rolling back the Biden administration's education policies, and major adjustments to energy and foreign policy.
Immigration
Trump plans to restart previous border security measures, including launching the largest deportation operation in history, focusing on cracking down on illegal immigrants.
He will also sign an executive order to stop providing automatic citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and resume border wall construction. Trump says he will 'end birthright citizenship,' but implementing this policy faces huge resistance and is likely unconstitutional.
Diplomacy
Trump has promised to implement an 'America First' foreign policy, reassessing aid to Ukraine and prioritizing national interests. He will also take a tougher stance on allies that do not meet defense spending requirements.
Society and Education
Trump plans to rescind the Biden administration's protections for transgender students and cut federal funding to schools that promote mandatory vaccination.
Judicial Actions
Trump has promised to pardon those convicted in the January 6 Capitol riot. He also plans to investigate Democratic prosecutors in retaliation for the legal cases against him.
Energy and Climate
Trump will ease environmental regulations from the Biden era, especially on vehicle emissions standards, reducing requirements for automakers. He also intends to stop wind power projects, restore fossil fuel extraction, and considers withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement again.
A new broom sweeps clean—and even more so the second time around.
Even before taking office, Trump has already sent out a bunch of job offers:
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Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: Leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency
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Fox News host Pete Hegseth: Secretary of Defense
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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem: Secretary of Homeland Security
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Immigration adviser Stephen Miller: Senior White House Adviser
Trump Takes Office, International Students Fleeing?
It's no exaggeration to call Xiaohongshu the biggest swing state.
After Trump won the election and his Day 1 plan was released, netizens were even more anxious than international students. For a while, the study-abroad doomsaying trend resurfaced on Xiaohongshu.
Studying abroad, job hunting, immigration, and travel all became collateral damage. The U.S. is not a place for 'people' to come, and pro-U.S. countries like the U.K., Australia, and Canada are all blacklisted—the future looks dark.
Study abroad? Restrictions on STEM majors, visa blocks for the 'Seven Sons of National Defense' (Chinese universities with ties to defense), and H-1B difficulty reaching the next level.
Whatever major you choose, think twice—anyway, with an environmental science degree, you'll be unemployed upon graduation.
Someone leaked that Cornell advised international students not to leave the U.S. after January 20 next year, fearing changes in visa policies after Trump takes office, sparking momentary panic.
But it was quickly debunked—Cornell students said they never received such an email, fake news 😅
Immigration? Programmers who haven't yet secured status have been declared 'completely wiped out'.
Netizen: If your base salary is below 284K, it's suggested you go straight back to your home country.
Legal immigrants and illegal immigrants—if the cost of distinguishing is too high, they might just cut across the board.
Travel? Remember Trump's 'travel ban' back then?
Visa policies are tightening, making travel to the U.S. even harder.
Buying a home? Tax policies favor the rich—in the future, the rich will get richer and the poor poorer.
Job hunting? First, crack down on ICC (Indian consulting companies); consulting workers get game over.
Canada? Netizen: Don't come, Canada has closed its doors.
What about Europe? Also advised not to come—the psychological gap is huge, and racism is more severe.
Following Xiaohongshu for Study Abroad Advice: A Dead End
Xiaohongshu is filled with wails—it seems that wherever you go, it's a dead end.
One wonders if the Trump lovers and the doomsayers are the same group of people, oscillating between pep talks and peddling anxiety, feeding off traffic from both sides.
The only real winners are the big players who went all in on Tesla stock before the election.
In fact, the study-abroad doom-mongering on Xiaohongshu is toxic clickbait, just like 'survivorship bias'. Consuming too much victimhood literature only amplifies your anxiety to no end.
The so-called 'personal accounts' from netizens—who knows how much water is mixed in, but they sure raise readers' blood pressure.
Clicking into the profiles of those doomsaying posts and comments, you'll find many are marketing accounts chasing trends and traffic, agencies profiting from anxiety-mongering, and green card holders making snide remarks. Very few offer constructive advice or help solve problems.
Think back: when Trump took office before, wasn't there similar chatter on social media? It's just that in 2017, Xiaohongshu users weren't as vocal.
During Trump 1.0, many international students still successfully enrolled and found jobs. Even those who failed the H-1B lottery multiple times eventually got picked through a supplemental lottery round.
The Biden administration fully retained and continued the immigration restrictions from the Trump 1.0 era. Many were denied visas or deported, but that seems to go unmentioned.
During Biden's term, inflation remained high and the job market was far from ideal. Major companies laid off employees in droves, and H-1B visa fraud worsened. Yet, once the election ended, the internet seemed to have collective amnesia.
To be sure, Trump's presidency is not a joyful event for the study-abroad community. But his second term hasn't begun yet, and everything is still unknown. The myriad campaign promises are ultimately just for votes. How many will actually materialize, and whether they'll be more talk than action, will only become clear once he's in the White House.
Isolated cases on Xiaohongshu do not represent the whole picture; generalizing from them is misleading. If simply browsing Xiaohongshu could solve problems, Trump's 'governance by Twitter' would have long completed its great mission.
Trump 2.0 hasn't started yet—no need to rush to conclusions. No matter how policies change, there's always a way through. Stay calm, improve yourself, and go with the flow.
The strong don't complain about their circumstances. The most pathetic are those who spend all day joining the doom chorus without taking any action.
Back when nobody loved Trump and everyone was clamoring for him to step down, few predicted his current return to power.
He's almost 80 and still fighting for an offer—what excuse do we have not to push ourselves?
