The Truth About Donald Trump

Trump at the ‘Fighting Antisemitism in America’ event

To be perfectly clear, my feelings about former President Trump have not changed. Time and again his flaws are on full display for the entire world to see. Bottom line for me is that  the election of either Trump or Harris will not be good for the country. Each for a different reason

The country is divided. Mostly along political lines. Which means that even though the majority of the American people realize Trump's flaws, he will nevertheless get about half of the vote. The next president will probably be elected by the slimmest of margins. 

How can people other than diehard MAGA voters who love everything about Trump vote for him? Because they agree with his policies, knowing full well how flawed he is. Not everyone believes he is the danger to the country that some - even among their own party are saying he is. Like former Congresswoman Liz Cheney for example. Some, like Nikky Haley, believe that Harris’s liberal policies are a greater danger to the country than Trump. 

Point being that that the majority of those that will not be voting for Trump will not be because of all the negative things being said about him. With the exception of conservative Republicans like Liz Cheney that consider him a danger to our democracy, and will vote for the liberal Harris as an anti Trump vote - most of the people that will be voting for Harris will be because they support her liberal policies and despise Trump's conservative polices more than they despise him personally.

One thing that always bothers me is the inability of some people to see the good in people they don't like. And therefore characterize every possible thing about them in negative terms. As though it is impossible for someone like Trump to have a good side or to interpret any of his comments in a positive way. 

As bad as Trump is on so many levels, he has a good side. A compassionate side. And not everything he says should be interpreted negatively. I will present an example of each.

This following story came up in 2016 illustrates his compassionate side. It is a true story that was originally published on July of 1988 in JTA: 

The private Boeing 727 of real estate tycoon Donald Trump arrived from Los Angeles at LaGuardia Airport, carrying aboard an Orthodox Jewish child with a rare and still undiagnosed breathing illness. 

The child, Andrew Ten, age 3, arrived with his parents — accompanied by three nurses who attend to him around the clock — to try to seek medical help in the New York area.

Trump made his plane available for the special trip to New York after the boy's parents, Judy and Harold Ten, called Trump and told him of their plight. 

Commercial airlines refused to fly the child because he could not travel without an elaborate life-support system, which includes a portable oxygen tank, a suction machine, a breathing bag and an adrenaline syringe. 

"Mr. Trump did not hesitate when we called him up. He said 'yes, I'll send my plane out,'" 29-year-old Harold Ten recalled shortly after he landed here.

 Asked why he thought Trump made his private jet available, Ten replied, "Because he is a good man. He has three children of his own and he knows what being a parent is all about." 

Ten said he believes that Trump fulfilled the Talmudic saying that "he who saves one person's life is as if he saved the entire world." 

Harold Ten said he and his family "are determined to do anything possible to save Andrew. We believe in God and we have hope," he said. 

Trump actually wrote about that experience and how deeply it affected him - in a book published in 2000. He remains in contact with Mr. Ten to this day.

This hardly sounds like the self absorbed politician everyone has come to hate. It sounds like a man who immediately fulfilled the need of a total stranger, an Orthodox Jew, out of pure compassion.

As for putting a negative spin on Trump’s comments, yesterday Trump spoke at a campaign event called ‘Fighting Antisemitism in America’.  The mainstream media seized on a few statements that need not have been construed as antisemitic. But the media singled hen out for a reason. And it wasn’t put a positive spin on them. The following is what he said: 

"I'm not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss. If I'm at 40%, I'm at -- think of it, that means 60% of voting for Kamala… 

"I'll put it to you very simply and as gently as I can, I wasn't treated properly by the voters who happen to be Jewish," he said. "I don't know. Do they know what the hell is happening if I don't win this election and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because, at 40%, that means 60% of the people are voting for the enemy. Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years, and I believe I'm 100%," said Trump as the crowd appeared to chat among themselves. 

Blaming the Jews if he loses sounds pretty antisemitic on the surface.  Without saying so, that is what the mainstream media implied. But it is exactly the opposite. While his comments are typical of the kind of exaggerating he does all the time. He is not that far off if the race is as close as everyone seems to think it will be. A very small number of voters could determent the results of the election. That means that any small block of voters could sway the election one way or the other. Including the small block of Jewish voters. 

And even though his comment about Israel ceasing to exist is a gross exaggeration - that too is based on the idea that a Palestinian state on the West Bank that Harris will be pursuing could be a mortal danger to Israel. The 60% of all Jews voting for Harris will have a lot to do with that too should she win by a tiny margin. 

Like I have been saying for quite some time now, I don’t want to see either candidate  become president. But I reject the notion that Trump has no humanity or that he is in any way antisemitic. Because both things are not true. 

If one is going to vote against a candidate, it ought to be based on truth. Not fiction.