The Real Donald Trump

The best indicator of someone's true character is how he treats others (employees, family, and friends) and whether or not he gives back to the community (time or resources).  We have learned Hillary Clinton's true character from stories leaked from White House staff members, including the Secret Service agents.  When a candidate is running for the highest office in the land, we must put aside our biases and make an honest effort to seek factual information that will allow the electorate an opportunity to learn the person's true character by presenting to them the "whole person."

I have listened to pundits and other politicians as well as read dozens of articles about Donald Trump's character ad nauseam.  The problem I have with the individuals who write and comment on Trump's character is that none of them actually knows him or has ever sat down and had a conversation with him.

The narrative is that Donald Trump, a 69-year-old man, is a serial adulterer and philanderer.  This narrative was also repeated by Senator Ted Cruz when he unloaded on Trump during his meltdown the last day of his presidential campaign.  In fact, it has even been said that Trump would destroy the moral compass of the country should he win the White House.  If the president of the United States sets the moral compass of the nation, then we have failed miserably with our past presidents.  We have elected to the presidency Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and Obama – foul-mouthed drug users, liars, and adulterers.  And those are the ones we learned about due to advances in media and technology that have enabled us to get information about their private lives.  Besides, it is the Church's job to set the moral compass of society, not the president's.

Exactly what parts of the Trump character narrative are true? Donald Trump has been married three times and is currently still married to his third wife.  He and his first wife, Ivana, have admitted that his adultery is what caused their divorce over twenty years ago.  There is no record that he has cheated on his second or his current wife.  So how it is that he is a serial adulterer?  Trump is also characterized as a serial philanderer due to his bragging about his sexual encounters on the Howard Stern show.  Although I do not condone adultery or fornication, Trump was a single man in the early seventies and part of the late nineties (his second divorce was finalized in 1999) until he married his current wife in 2005.  I don't know of many heterosexual single young or middle-aged men who are not philandering, or at least trying to.  Trump had the advantage because he was a billionaire at a very young age.

I am appalled that most of the people attacking Trump's character as a serial philanderer are men.  Currently, Trump appears to be happily married.  His children are well educated and successful, and they adore and respect him.  In addition, Trump has never drunk alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or taken drugs.  I know of many so-called Christians who cannot abstain from alcohol.

When listening to the media cover Trump or reading articles written about him, I notice that there is never any reference to the good deeds that he has done for others and his community.  There is also never any reporting of the positive character references given by people who know him personally, who work with him or have interacted with him.  The following are just a few of the omitted stories:

• Lynne Patton, a black female executive at the Trump Organization, tells the inspiring story of how Trump and his family stood by her even when she fell into substance abuse.

• The time when Trump saved a family's farm from foreclosure, after the father had committed suicide, by paying off the mortgage.

• Trump sent a $25,000 check to a  U.S. Marine to help him get back on his feet after Obama left him to rot in a Mexican jail.

• When the NYPD did not have money in the budget to pay for fliers needed to catch a serial rapist, Trump donated the $40,000 needed.

• When singer Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew were murdered, Trump allowed her and her family to stay at Trump Tower, free of charge, while making funeral arrangement.

• Trump used his business acumen to prove how inefficient government is when he stepped in a saved Wollman Rinking, an ice-skating rink in Central Park.  After the NYC government spent six years and flushed $13 million down the drain at an attempt at total refurbishment of the rink, Trump took over the project without taking a profit and finished in less than four months at a cost of under $3 million.

Another Trump narrative is that he was a lifelong liberal Democrat until he decided to run for president.  I Googled Trump's party affiliations, and all I could ever come up with publicly is him being a Republican.  As far back as 1988, Trump was being interviewed by Larry King at that year's Republican convention.  There are several YouTube videos of him through the years talking about the same things he is talking about today: America's unfair trade agreements with China and other countries.  In fact, Trump has been saying the same things for over thirty years.  He has appeared before Congress and been interviewed several times making these same comments.

He admitted to once being pro-choice back in 1999, and he has explained the circumstances that led him to change to pro-life.  It is reported that Ronald Reagan was once pro-choice as well.

As a businessman, Trump has donated to both Republicans and Democrats.  In fact, he has donated to more Republican candidates than Democrats.  Yet the narrative is that he has been a lifelong liberal Democrat.  Where is the evidence?

Donald Trump is an open book who has been in the public view since the 1980s.  Trump has always said he did not want to be president, and he has always hoped that someone else would step up and fix the problems he has been talking about for the past thirty years.  Yet no one came along.  When he announced his candidacy for the president of the United States, he said he had to do it because no one else will. 

That fact that people are willing to outright lie about Trump or misstate his positions when there is so much about him available through the internet proves that people are either lazy or extremely biased.  According to Bobby Knight, the legendary coach of the Indiana Hoosiers, Trump is the most prepared man to enter the presidency.  If conservatives are so afraid that he's going to revert back to his liberal policies, please tell me what those policies are.

Christian Commentary (http://patriciascornerblog.com), or contact the author at patdickson@earthlink.net.  Follow on Twitter @Patrici15767099.