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In January 2017, my wife Leela June and I were driving from Washington, DC to Snowshoe Ski Resort in West Virginia. Just two months ago, then-New York City businessman Donald J. Trump had shocked the nation and the world with his well-deserved and much-needed election as president of the United States.
As I have written on this site before, I have been a fan of businessman Trump for many years. In 1987, while I was a writer in President Ronald Reagan’s White House, I read Mr. Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, and found it to be the best “real world” business book ever written. I honestly believed that it was one of the.
As my wife and I continued driving that day in 2017, most of our conversations focused on Trump and his pending transition to the presidency. As my wife drove, I gave my usual lecture, “Billionaire Trump doesn’t need this.”
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the Ellipse in Washington, Nov. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“Why enter the political arena when you can live a life of peace and luxury while growing a global business empire?” I asked. “Why should he be subjected to partisan attacks, false rumors and personal smears by stubborn elites who fear they cannot control or sway him? Do I have to risk everything I’ve built over the last few decades to get that many jobs? Did I say he’s out of reach?”
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My wife looked at the road, smiled and said, “Now answer your own question.”
I smiled back and gave her the answer she had heard many times before. “Because then-businessman Trump looked around and saw the country he loved falling apart, and he asked himself two questions: ‘If not me, then who? Not now. , When?’ Because of his decades of unparalleled success and experience, and because he made himself a billionaire, he has the talent, intelligence, experience, connections, and patriotism to turn his country around. I have come to believe that I have it.”
As we continued driving deeper into West Virginia and higher in elevation, the temperature continued to drop and the landscape transformed into a winter wonderland of snow-covered trees as far as the eye could see. Seeing that grand vision immediately took my mind back to Christmas.
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As a child, I grew up in extreme poverty and was often homeless. At the age of 6, I got a small plastic nativity scene that came to mean everything to me and started my spirituality. That same Christmas season, when the police officer came to evict us again, he found me hiding in the closet, clutching a nativity scene to my chest.
As I got older, Christmas for me became about helping the least among us.
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President Trump speaks on the phone sharing the latest information tracking Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
As we drove back to the ski slopes in West Virginia, staring in awe at the snow-covered landscape, I suddenly turned to my wife and blurted out, “What would happen if a millionaire used his gifts to save Christmas” for the poorest among us? ”
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We had printed out driving directions, so I immediately turned the paper over and began furiously sketching out the plot of such a story.
The plot involved the millionaire protagonist Christian Nicholas, whose life changed dramatically for the worse. When Christians struggle to find the true meaning of life despite their vast wealth, their brother Paul, a pastor in Texas, recalls the only time in his life that he was truly happy. Reminds me.
It happened when he was a little boy, saving every penny all year long to buy and deliver Christmas presents to poor children at the Army base where he lived with his military parents. The younger brother implored Christian, “Be like Santa Claus again. Save yourself by helping others.”
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“Saved” by a much-needed warning from his pastor brother, this literal-minded billionaire now makes it his life’s mission to build a real “Santa’s Workshop” at the North Pole. I decide. The fancy daydream would not only save him, but also a select number of adults from around the world who volunteered to be his “Santa’s elves.” Adults from all walks of life who are similarly lost, suffering and in need of help.
The billionaire then leveraged his vast experience, wealth, and drive to reach out to his vast network of contacts in the private and government sectors to assemble the team needed to build such a complex. Organize. All of us will soon experience firsthand the faith, hope, and charity that unite us as human beings and bring joy to thousands of poor and abandoned children around the world.
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President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump cheer as the 2017 National Christmas Tree is lit. (AP)
This story was inspired by a conversation about then-President-elect Trump and was turned into a book called The North Pole Project: In Search of the True Meaning of Christmas.
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We all have gifts that allow us to make a difference. Fictional millionaire Christian Nicholas used this word to bring hope and joy to thousands of children and adults. President Trump is trying to use himself to save the country.
What is your gift that can make a difference to those most in need this Christmas season and beyond? Merry Christmas.
Click here to read more articles by Douglas MacKinnon