One aspect of Trump’s character that gets lost in the dust storm that engulfs him and his detractors is his capacity for compassion. In Think Like a Champion, Trump recalls the time in 1988 when he received a desperate plea from a Los Angeles rabbi—someone he had never met—pleading with the New York businessman for help in getting his three-year-old son to New York City in hopes that doctors there could find a cure for the boy’s severe respiratory condition. The rabbi father’s request was a considerable one: Would Trump fly the boy to New York City in his private jet. No commercial airline would allow the boy to fly on one of their flights because of the extensive medical equipment he needed to have with him at all times to survive.
“I had small children at the time, and I immediately said yes to his request. How could I say no?” Trump says.
The future president sent his private jet to Los Angeles to pick up the boy and his parents and bring them to New York City. Although the meeting with health-care experts proved futile as the young boy soon died, the boy’s parents never forgot Trump’s generous provision, though. In writing Think Like a Champion, Trump reported that the dad had contacted him every year for eighteen years running, doing so on the day before the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, to convey a message of thanks while telling Trump of the blessings they have had in their lives. 1
Numerous other instances of Trump’s Samaritan ways date back decades before he entered politics. In 1991, his mother, Mary Anne Trump, then seventy-nine years old was assaulted and robbed in Queens—knocked to the ground by a teenager who made off with what cash she had on her. Her fall to the ground broke her ribs, induced hemorrhaging in her brain and resulted in a permanent disability involving her vision and hearing. A witness to the incident, a truck driver, chased down and apprehended the sixteen-year-old boy. It turns out the hero’s home was about to be foreclosed, and Trump graciously wrote him a check that allowed the man to pay his mortgage . 2
“I’ve been back behind the curtain with him when he’s with people nobody sees, and he keeps noticing the crippled person . . . or the military person, or the person with the police force, or the person that looks like they’re poor,” evangelist James Robison said. “Those are the people he goes to when nobody sees him. He notices them. He notices them when he walks out in the crowd. He’ll notice the people that nobody else notices.” 3
Empathy and compassion are a core part of Trump’s makeup—the part that most of the media never reports. He is at his best in that regard when he is out of the public eye, as was the case in August 2016 when prolonged rains in southern Louisiana produced floods that drove many families from their homes, devastating the area. Tens of thousands of homes and many businesses were submerged, with overall damage to the area estimated at between $10 billion and $15 billion. One of those homeowners affected was Tony Perkins, a campaign supporter of Trump’s and, at the time, an interim pastor at a large church.
Four days passed, and still there was no governmental assistance. No President Barack Obama onsite to see the damage and console residents. No Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic presidential nominee, either. Seemingly no presidential-level interest, until Trump showed up accompanied by his vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence and evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy.
“Trump was visibly taken aback by how significant the devastation and destruction was,” Perkins said. “ . . . He told the Secret Service to stop the cars, and he got out and went up and met residents in the neighborhoods. He was so warm and genuine in his concern.”
One of the then-homeless Louisiana couples Trump met was Jimmy and Olive Morgan, who, when asked by Trump if they were going to rebuild, said they were “getting up there” in years and didn’t know if they had it in them to build another home. At which point, according to Pence, Trump reached over and grabbed Jimmy Morgan by the shoulder and said, “You’re going to rebuild; I know you’re that kind of guy. You’re going to rebuild.” Nine months later, Pence returned to check in on the couple, and found out that they had indeed rebuilt their home. 4
Donald Trump has been described as “a wrecking ball to the spirit of political correctness.” 5 It fits, and it’s a description with which Trump himself would probably agree, as a badge of honor. He says what he thinks, so much of which enters airspace as unfiltered soundwaves. Along with that, he also produces moments of self-deprecating humor that progressive media often just don’t seem to grasp. When he poked fun at the notion that he might somehow try to wrangle a third four-year term as president (the U.S. Constitution limits a president to two elected terms), many of his political opponents and even some in the media expressed sincere disdain. Ditto in August 2018 when, at a veterans’ event in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump was obviously joking when he wanted to award himself the Medal of Honor, saying “I wanted one, but they (his aides) told me I don’t qualify. I said, ‘Can I give it to myself anyway?’ They said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’” 6 Again, his comments were taken seriously by many lacking the humor gene.
Here's what Trump is up against. U.S. presidents are generally expected to speak and act with a certain sense of decorum that supposedly suits the office—a well-bred concoction with ingredients that include humility, poise, gravitas, temperance, empathy, and dignity. The ‘common man (or woman)’ might possess one or two of those qualities on a good day, but the American president is often considered ill-suited for office if he or she is lacking in any of those areas. Which brings us back without pause to one Donald Trump, who is more common man—outside his billions of dollars in personal wealth, that is—than he is refined national leader. Again, Trump probably wouldn’t argue with that because he doesn’t care. He is not part of the “enlightened elites” that many political enemies embrace . He can be downright uncouth, graceless, and even odd.
Self-restraint is not a Trump strong point. In his book Trump’s America, Newt Gingrich mentions “Trump’s ferocity in counterattacking (as) part of his strategy.” Gingrich continues: “As someone who spent his career with blue-collar workers, Trump understands that someone punching you becomes an existential moment. You either fight back or you back down. Trump always chooses to fight. In some ways, President Trump is the first president since Andrew Jackson to understand barroom brawling at a practical level. He applies this brawl model to politics. You have to counterpunch or you will lose.” 7
Gingrich, in his book Understanding Trump, published a year before his Trump’s America, says that to understand Trump, you have to delve into his psychology as well as his philosophy: “To really grasp Trump, you must understand his doctrine and his psychology—the collection of attitudes and methods he uses to achieve success,” Gingrich said. “That doctrine is fast, aggressive, disruptive, and confounding to the unwary. . . . He places a greater emphasis on speed than mistake avoidance, sets big goals and remains flexible. He capitalizes on his opponents’ weaknesses and works relentlessly to diminish or avoid their strengths.” 8
And once Trump thinks it, he speaks it. Sometimes he’ll speak it before he has finished processing the thought, but it is a manner of communication that endears him to the common man and woman. That is how they speak themselves, whether gathered around the dinner table or cozying up to the bar at the local pub. It is a healthy mix of shooting from the hip and exercising a sense of humor that begs a thick skin. If you’re not comfortable shooting straight and find Trump distasteful, then note you are probably spending much of your life with a frown on your face.
Then there are the Trump tweets. Among the untold thousands:
• “It used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico. Now cars are made in Mexico and you can’t drink the water in Flint.”
• “I have this thing called Twitter and Facebook, which is amazing actually. It’s like owning The New York Times without the losses.”
• “My biggest opponent was the microphone.” (After one of his 2016 debates against Hillary Clinton)
“The sheer volume of people that support him because he’s willing to be funny and ballsy and say what he thinks—you cannot underestimate that,” an unnamed senior Trump administration official was quoted as saying by politico.com in October 2018. Added Brian O. Walsh, president of the pro-Trump group America First Action: “His speaking style is what endears him to his supporters. It’s a big part of what fueled him through the (2016) primaries and the general election. The unpolished everyman who says what he thinks.” 9
For years, the most obvious target of ridicule from the anti-Trumpsters has been Trump’s hair. Is it his or a toupee? Occasionally Trump has played along, such as in those times he has invited people up on stage with him to let them take a good tug. It doesn’t come off. It isn’t a hairpiece. Audiences love it when he puts out such a challenge, and the hair stays in place.
“Another time he had us laughing until it hurt,” author Gene Ho says in Trumpography, introducing another example of Trump’s humor. “He delivered a stand-up-worthy string of one-liners about how he’d contemplated the effects of global warming because he preferred aerosol hairspray to pump action. Then he went on to mimic the chht, chht, chht sound of the individual pumps from the squirt bottle. ‘We’re going to be here all day with pump-action hairspray’!” 10
“It pays to have a sense of humor about yourself,” Trump said, recalling a credit-card commercial he once made, in which a gust of wind atop Trump Tower blew the card out of Trump’s hand, sending it down to the street below, the scene ending with Trump climbing out of a dumpster after retrieving his card while a passerby remarked, “And I thought he was doing so well!” . . . “If I took myself too seriously, I would have missed out on a lot of fun and a nice paycheck,” Trump said. 11
Notes:
1. Donald J. Trump. Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life (New York: RP Minis, 2010), 63.
2. Trump, Think Like a Champion, 63.
3. David Brody and Scott Lamb, The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography (New York: Broadside Books, 2018), 125.
4. Brody and Lamb, The Faith of Donald J. Trump, 169.
5. Brody and Lamb, 172.
6. Joanna Weiss, “Trump Pokes Fun at Himself. Why Do Only Some People See It?” Politico Magazine, November 9, 2019.
7. Newt Gingrich, Trump’s America (New York: Center Street, 2018), 91.
8. Newt Gingrich, Understanding Trump (New York: Center Street,2017), 43.
9. Andrew Restuccia and Ben Schreckinger, “In MAGA World, Trump’s Jokes Always Land,” www.politico.com, October 19, 2018.
10. Gene Ho, Trumpography: How Biblical Principles Paved the Way to the American Presidency. (iUniverse, 2018),102.
11. Donald J. Trump with Meredith McIver, Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success (New York: Wiley, 2008), 90.