URBANDALE, Iowa — As a throng of millennials with selfie sticks in hand crowded around the entrance of Urbandale High School, where Donald Trump would be emerging for his most recent rally, a college student made her way to the front of the stage, ensuring that she would have the opportunity to ask the real estate mogul a question.
This was Trump’s first public appearance after the Republican presidential candidate declined to correct a man who said at a New Hampshire rally on Thursday that President Barack Obama was a Muslim and that Muslim Americans were a “problem.”
Trump, appearing on a stage at the local high school alongside the student body president and the homecoming king and queen, didn’t address the controversy in his stump speech, but instead sought to give the crowd of students — clad in their homecoming dresses and suits — some advice, telling them to “stay away from alcohol, drugs and cigarettes” and to “do what you love.” After speaking for about 20 minutes, Trump answered questions from the crowd.
Lily Nellans, 19, raised her hand, and soon a woman in a Trump T-shirt brought the microphone over to her.
“So I consider Muslim Americans to be an important asset to our country and society,” Nellans said. “Would you consider putting one on your cabinet or even on your ticket?”
“Oh, absolutely, no problem,” Trump said after some back and forth with Nellans, not hearing the correct question initially. “OK?”
“Great,” Nellans responded, shrugging her shoulders with disappointment.
As the event came to an end, and the crowd flocked to Trump in the hopes of shaking his hand and posing for photos, the Des Moines native walked in the opposite direction.
“I wish he would have done more,” Nellans told The Huffington Post. “I wish he would have stood up for the contributions Muslim Americans make and took a stand against the racism that other of his supporters have put forward at events such as this.”
The sophomore at Western Kentucky University is studying international affairs, philosophy and Arabic. She even spent the summer in Bosnia, taking classes in genocide studies, peace building and security. She said she was hoping for a real answer to her question.
“I think he just didn’t want to make it an issue, didn’t want any sound bites from answering too much,” Nellans said.
Nellans attended the rally with her father. She said she was appalled listening to how Trump responded to a New Hampshire voter this week, and knew she had to attend his next event, which happened to be close to her hometown.
“I think our president should stand up against things like Islamophobia, not support it,” shed said. “I wouldn’t have had a problem with him talking about how we are going to combat fundamentalism or ISIS, but the first things out of his mouth should have been, ‘Our president is a citizen, and he is a Christian and even if he were a Muslim, that would be OK.”
“They are not a problem, they are an asset,” Nellans added.
While the college student said she was impressed that Urbandale High School was able to host a major candidate on its campus, she was disappointed overall with the content of Trump’s speech.
“What his message was up there, was ‘I’ve been successful, I’m great, you should look up to me, and that’s why I should be president,’” she said.
This motivated teenager said she wants to work in human rights advocacy and eventually run for public office. She thinks a policy-based approach on a lower scale would have made for a much more insightful Trump rally.
“This was a self-promotion event,” she said, “not an event to really connect with the voters and get his message out.”