On January 20, Joe Biden will be sworn in as president whether or not Trump concedes. While some people are anxiously waiting for this day to come, others are dreading it. Trump does not have to concede, but that is what his responsibility is as a president who lost an election. Philadelphia Mayor Kenney stated on TheHill, “What the president needs to do, frankly, is put his big boy pants on. He needs to acknowledge that he lost. And he needs to congratulate the winner.” Trump needs to look at the big picture rather than just looking at the fact that he lost.

People are waiting for the moment when Trump will hopefully concede but we do not know if that will happen. According to BBC, Trump stated, “[Joe Biden] only won in the eyes of the fake news media, I concede nothing.” If Trump doesn’t concede, he will be the first president to do so. This is very controversial because no matter who people voted for, most people think that he should concede out of respect for democracy. A true president would not care if they won or lost; they would just do what was best for the United States.

Some people are still waiting for the votes to be completely counted before deciding if they want Trump to concede. Sophomore Cecelia Dethrage stated, “I think that it’s okay that he doesn’t concede until he knows the entire truth about the election and every vote is counted correctly.” Some people feel this way about the election; however, most of the states have turned in the new votes, and the scores have not changed. Biden needs to get what he deserves, which is to be congratulated by the President of the United States. 

Although some people want to wait for the votes to be completely counted, others think Trump should have already conceded. Sophomore Sophie Eliott stated, “Conceding in the U.S is a tradition from president to president and by him not doing it really sets a standard that he set for his presidency and how he behaved in office.” Being a president comes with responsibilities, and one of those is to congratulate the winner no matter how you feel about it. At the end of the day, no matter what your views or opinions are, we are all here to work together and make the United States the best that we can.