A Case for Donald Trump

I once flew from San Diego to New York to hear Donald Trump speak. During my time there, I met some amazing people and made some lifelong friends. From Trump, I learned many lessons. As a real estate entrepreneur, it would be foolish not to take time to learn from him. After all, he made his life based on real estate. I bought and read his books. I watched his shows. I studied who he was and how he operated.

This was over a decade ago and now he is President of the United States. The past four years have been challenging for a lot of people for different reasons. Many of my friends who voted for Trump, felt that America should be run like a business. I will state however, that many of these friends of mine, never ran a business themselves, nor did they associate with business owners on a regular basis, so to me, their idea wasn’t sound. But this is beside the point.

Right now, we are experiencing what I would consider a crisis in leadership. And its a good thing.

Its been said that without struggle, there is no progress, and I find this statement to be true. Right now, America is struggling with herself. Somewhere, we lost sight of who we are and what our values are. In my study of American History, I felt…I knew America was created to be a place where people could become who they had it in them to become. And that for all their faults, the Founders Fathers had a vision that America could bring out the best in her citizens. Were they right?

In my opinion, for the most part, they were. Did we have our faults? Of course we did. The question however, is whether or not we are willing to acknowledge these faults, learn from them, and move forward.

Enter Donald Trump.

As an outsider, he rocked the political boat. And this was a good thing. As an outsider, he was not bound by the typical “rules” of the game. In many ways, he took the game to a different level. He ran under the banner of “Make America Great Again,” and people rallied behind him.

The challenge, was that in “making” America great, he seemed to bring out the worst in people. Not just in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, but in Americans in general. People became suspect of their neighbors. People began lashing out in fear and hate and anger.

Of course his presidency is made complicated by the pandemic, and I realize I am oversimplifying the situation, but I just wanted to make a point.

The point is this: Trump brought out the worst in America in many ways. The thing is, I feel America has always had this “Badness” in her. Wounds if you will. And now it is showing. And while it is tumultuous and even crazy for some, I see this as an opportunity to heal the wounds that NEED to be healed. Social injustice, needs to be healed. Systemic racism, needs to be healed. Environmental crimes, needs to be healed. Poor education, needs to be healed. Corruption in politics, needs to be healed, and so much more.

So while I think Trump isn’t the leader for America, (I will write more about leadership later) I do feel, in the history of America, that there needed to be a Donald Trump. Just as there needed to be a Hitler, a Gandhi, a Buddha, a Stalin.

We are all a on great journey of growth. And sometimes, in seeing the worst in ourselves, we can allow the best of ourselves to emerge.

With Love,

Charlie