There is a great deal of division on if you should respect the office of the president even if you disagree with the person occupying the office. With the previous 44 presidents, it was pretty easy to disagree with them for some people but most still held a modicum of respect for the office as the presidents were normally decent people. The 45th president is a bit more of a grey area.

The way that Trump has seemingly disrespected the job he now has brings into question whether we should or shouldn’t give him the same respect as the others that have sat in the oval before him. During a March 22 forum, Trump stated that he would tell 25-year-old Donald to “not run for president.”

Whether this is a joke or not is irrelevant, as it paints the picture that he’d rather not be president. This is not the sort of image that a sitting president should be striving for. To me, a man that watches eight hours of news coverage biased towards him a day, according to The Hill, and consistently tweets attacks towards his colleagues in the legislative branch and other area of politics does not deserve the respect of the American people.

Also on March 22, Trump tweeted at Joe Biden saying that if they were to fight Biden would go down “fast and hard.” While Biden started this exchange with an attack of his own, and should be held accountable for that, the president should not be able to be baited this easily.  For reference, if my dad made a twitter account and behaved the way that Trump does, he would be fired.

Trump’s presidency has brought up an interesting question: should you respect the office when the person holding it doesn’t? 

In my opinion, you shouldn’t have to. Respect is earned, and treating your job like a joke or a power trip is not the way to earn my respect, or the respect of millions of other Americans.

I understand that not everyone will agree with this. To many people, the presidency is sacred. But in my mind, the second we put the president on a pedestal where no matter what they do they are celebrated, we come closer to having a king than an elected representative of the people.