Donald Trump’s presidential victory brings fear and joy to the Philadelphia region

This was not the result he expected or even wanted. But on a day when the election results sparked a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation throughout the region, the Rev. Corey Jones said he and the 1,000 members of his Tabernacle Baptist Church in South Jersey had no choice but to accept them.

So while supporters of former President Donald Trump celebrated a victory whose advantage exceeded As expected, Jones called his disheartened, mostly black parishioners to prayer.

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 a problem with this man,” he told churchgoers Sunday, “but if he gets elected, all we can do is pray. There is power beyond it. The Burlington church planned to hold a service Wednesday night “so people can express their feelings and we’re going to pray.”

Across the river in Bucks County, which was ready to switch to TrumpHowever, members of the Bible study group led by Susan Webber had very different assessments of the result. “Everyone was thrilled,” said Webber, who lives in Newtown. “They just thought, ‘This is who God wants to control.’

The emotional reaction to Trump’s victory over Harris seemed to match the gulf between the two major parties.

In Philadelphia, where some said they stayed up until the early hours of the morning watching the results in disbelief, dozens of high school students walked out of classes, submitting to what they said was a political system that leaves them powerless, chanting: “Too young to vote.” , old enough to be influenced.”

Some adults interviewed in the city said they feared what the next four years might bring. “Everything will change,” said Juanita Serrano, 37, with her 9-year-old daughter Hilda in Mayfair. “Women won’t have the same freedoms,” she said. citing abortion rights.

In Broad and Erie, Franklin Noble, 58, said he was “not happy at all” that Trump won a second term and expressed concerns about his ability to afford rent under another Trump administration.

After being homeless for some time, Noble said he had just received a housing assistance apartment and was “trying to improve himself.” Now he is afraid that everything may pass.

“Prices are already so high that I don’t think they’ll get any lower under Trump,” Noble said.

Jones, the Tabernacle Baptist pastor, said, “The last four years have been very difficult for people,” and that contributed to Trump’s victory. Housing and food prices have risen sharply, he said, and wages have not kept pace.

“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 lacks critical thinking skills,” he said.

According to exit polls conducted on behalf of CNN, ABC News and NBC News, 24% of black men supported Trump – double the number who supported the Republican candidate in 2020.

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

Trump’s victory is a source of concern in the LGBT community.

On a bench in South Philadelphia, trans woman Anna Farino, 34, said she felt like she couldn’t stop crying.

“I will never stop being myself,” she said. “But what if I can’t get my hormones, what if I can’t get medical care in general?”

“I just feel numb,” said her friend Bridget Horan, a therapist. “I feel like I’m dissociating.”

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

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

On Sunday, the store closed down the street because of a large Italian Americans for Trump rally. Now all they could feel was pride.

“Joy,” said Gary Guaraldo, a former Philadelphia police officer who now works as a police officer in Pennsylvania.

“As a matter of fact, when I left the house, I said to my wife, ‘The air smells sweeter.’ Because we won.”

The nearly dozen smokers who filled the store’s leather chairs and sofas ignored Trump’s authoritarian language.

“They started it,” said Anthony Renzulli of the Democrats. “How could you call people “Nazis and fascists”? This is funny.”

For Feme Oluko, 34, of Northeast Philadelphia: the result was a clear disappointment – he voted for Kamala Harris and has voted for Democratic candidates all his life.

“Her policies would benefit all the suffering people, the poor people,” said Oluko, who moved to the United States from Haiti in the 1980s. “Trump was more like an angry man.”

Despite the defeat of his preferred candidate, the Northeast Philadelphia resident sees no path forward for the nation other than both parties trying to get along.

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

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

She added: “When you say that, people get angry.”