Donald Trump shocked America when he announced his plans to run for the Presidency in 2016. This former TV personality has been making a name for himself through a number of tweets and comments that have been labeled as untactful. In a poll of public opinion, a number of Plano West student and faculty members were read a list of Donald Trump quotes and were asked to give their initial reaction.

“I feel very angry about those quotes,” junior Ana Solis said. “They’re upsetting stereotypes. It’s not something that should be said in general about our country. Obviously everyone is different. Those were so judgmental.”

Solis’s reaction was along the lines of how most subjects felt after hearing Trump’s comments such as “Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people [in office]” and “Do you mind if I sit back a little? Because your breath is very bad.”

Economics teacher John Scott was speechless after hearing some of the remarks Trump has made since announcing his candidacy.

“Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in the United States but we also have the freedom to be educated and the freedom to be ignorant,” Scott said. “I think sometimes our speech reflects both of those things. Many of those quotes are self-evident of that.”

Trump is currently one of the leading Republican presidential candidates, meaning that there is a very real chance he could become the president of the United States. Aside from important issues such as foreign policy (Trump’s current solution to immigration is to “build a wall”), the public typically seeks a president that is personable. Because of his offensive comments, many are not even considering Trump as a viable voting option.

“I don’t think we should take this guy seriously,” statistics teacher Jesse Pfeifer said. “It scares me that he’s doing so well in the polls.”

While several students were able to guess that Trump was the one behind the quotes, others such as senior Lane Fellhauer were surprised to hear that a public figure was the person who said these things.

“The person that said that is probably close-minded,” Fellhauer said before finding out the quote was directly from Trump.

Whether Trump sways the public’s opinion or not at his next debate is up to him.

“We have a democracy, so everybody has the right to run,” Scott said. “At the same time we also, as individuals, have the right and responsibility to vote and to vote for our conscious. So hopefully everybody will vote with intelligence and hopefully our leaders that we elect will have that.”