The presidential election was one of the major topics of the year, with some of the other topics being very controversial, this was no exception.

The 2016 presidential election split the nation in several ways. There were a large number of individuals that were protesting other candidates and stating why others should not vote for them and some celebrities even stated that they would leave this country if the candidate that they supported didn’t win. The two major candidates were Donald Trump of New York and Hillary Clinton of Illinois. The other candidates were Gary Johnson of New Mexico, Jill Stein of Massachusetts. The vast majority of U.S. citizens supported Donald or Hillary, leaving the other candidates to the merely single digit percents.

Matt LeBretton, New Balance’s vice president for communications, stated in the Wall Street Journal that “We feel things are going to move in the right direction” under Donald J. Trump. He said this based on Trump’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he never stated that he indorsed Trump. But people took this as an endorsement of Trump and reacted quickly with photos of them burning New Balance shoes and being thrown in the trash. Over the weekend that he stated this, a website by the name of Daily Stormer said that New Balance was “the official shoes of white people,” encouraging readers to buy them. The support of white supremacists and what is known as the alt-right, led the company to distance itself away from the comments and address their remark about Donald Trump.

Following the winning of the president elect Donald Trump, protest and small riots broke out. The riots were mainly democrats with the main statement being “That’s not my president.” One of the main riots appeared in Oakland, California, where demonstrators opposed to the outcome smashed windows and lit garbage cans on fire. Protests also appeared nation wide. In Oregon, dozens of people blocked traffic in downtown Portland and forced a delay for trains on two light rail lines. The crown grew to around 300 people including some that sat in the middle of the road to block traffic while they chanted “That’s not my president.” With all of that happening you would think that the celebrities that said they were going to leave would go instantly right? Wrong! The celebs never left! Some state that one of the reasons is that Trump informed the public that he wants to cut taxes to 33%.