Divided states of America: Trump presidency splits Michigan residents

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The US state of Michigan helped deliver the electoral victory for incoming president Donald Trump.

Supporters said Trump’s pledge to bring back manufacturing jobs helped drive him to victory. But others heard a different message, one they felt put the brakes on an inclusive America.

Suehaila Amen advises international students, and she said as Donald Trump prepares to become the next US president, more and more students are posing troubling questions. Amen said Trump is cultivating an environment that not only punishes immigrants -but will also end up hurting the United States.

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the Chairman's Global Dinner at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington DC, on January, 17, 2017. /CFP Photo

Not far from the Dearborn campus – Ford Motor Company recently announced it was scrapping plans to build a billion-dollar plant in Mexico -instead investing hundreds of millions to upgrade its operations in Michigan.

Brian Pannebecker is an unabashed Trump supporter, and a 20-year Ford worker. He’s counting on Trump to restore manufacturing jobs to the so-called Rust Belt of the United States. But many believe those jobs are gone for good – leading to a bitterly divided nation.

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, on January 11, 2017. /CFP Photo ‍

Barack Obama was a popular president in the Detroit area – home to one of the largest concentrated Arab populations outside of the Middle East – and, in the suburb of Dearborn where half the 90,000 residents are Muslim.

Many in the Arab American communities of Dearborn, Michigan, believe that life will become more polarized under a trump presidency and, they said Trump’s rallying cry of ‘Make America Great Again’ rings hollow among many communities across the United States.

One side sees immigration reform, a reduction in corporate taxes, a bump in blue collar jobs, a return to greatness. And the other - something far different. The next four years will determine if that’s true and whether Trump can deliver on his promise of more jobs.