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Back in January of 2017, my wife Leela June and I were driving from Washington, D.C., to the Snowshoe ski resort in West Virginia. Just two months earlier, then New York City businessman Donald J. Trump had shocked the nation and the world with his well-deserved – and desperately needed – election as president of the United States.
As I have written about in the past for this site, I had long been a fan of businessman Trump. In 1987, while a writer in the White House of President Ronald Reagan, I read Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal” and honestly believed it to be one of the best “real-world” business books ever written.
As my wife and I continued our drive that day in 2017, most of the conversation centered on Trump and his pending transition to president. As my wife drove, I went into my regular lecture that “Billionaire Trump needed none of 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 should he enter the political arena when he can live a life of peace and luxury while growing his global business empire?” I asked. “Why should he subject himself to partisan attacks, false hoaxes and personal smears by an entrenched elite fearful that they could not control or sway him? Why should he risk all that he built over the last few decades in the pursuit of an office so many told him was unattainable?”
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While watching the road, my wife smiled and said: “Now go ahead and answer your own questions.”
I smiled back and gave her the answer she had heard numerous times before: “Because, as then businessman Trump looked around and saw the country he loved falling apart at the seams, he asked himself two questions: ‘If not me, who? If not now, when?’ Precisely because he had decades of unrivaled success and experience and precisely because he had made himself a multibillionaire, he did come to believe he had the gifts, the intelligence, the experience, the connections, and the patriotism to turn the country around.”
As we continued our drive and got deeper into – and higher – into West Virginia, the temperature continued to drop while the landscape transitioned into a winter wonderland of snow-covered trees as far as the eye could see. That spectacular vision immediately refocused my mind on Christmas.
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As a child, I grew up in abject poverty and was homeless often. As a 6-year-old, I had obtained a tiny plastic Nativity scene that came to mean everything to me and launched my spirituality. That same year, during the Christmas season, when the constables came to evict us yet again, they found me hiding in a closet clutching that Nativity scene to my chest.
As I got older, Christmas for me became about helping the least among us.
President Trump speaks on the phone sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Jumping back to the drive to the ski resort in West Virginia, as I continued to look in awe at the snow-covered landscape, I suddenly turned to my wife and blurted out: “What if a multi-billionaire used his gifts to save Christmas for the neediest among us?”
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We had printed out driving directions and I immediately flipped the paper over to its blank side and began to furiously sketch out the plot for such a story.
That plot involved multibillionaire main character Christian Nicholas, whose life has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. As Christian struggles to find real meaning in life despite his vast wealth, his older brother Paul, a minister in Texas, reminds him of the one and only time in Christian’s life when he was truly happy.
That time was when, as a small boy, he saved every penny all year to buy and deliver Christmas presents for needy children on the Army base he lived on with his military parents. His brother then implored Christian to “become like Santa Claus all over again. Save yourself by helping others.”
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“Saved” by his minister brother’s desperately needed reminder, the literal-minded billionaire decides that his life’s mission will now be to build a real-life “Santa’s Workshop” at the North Pole. A flight of imagination that will not only save him, but also a select number of adults from around the world who have applied to be his “Santa’s Elves.” Adults from every walk of life who have also lost their way and are in anguished need of salvation.
The multibillionaire then uses his vast experience, wealth and drive to reach out to his vast array of contacts in the private and governmental sector to assemble the team needed to build such a complex. Together, all soon experience firsthand the faith, hope and charity that unites us as human beings, while bringing joy to thousands of needy and abandoned children the world over.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump cheer after lighting the 2017 National Christmas Tree. (AP)
That story, inspired by the conversation about then President-elect Trump, became the book: “The North Pole Project: In Search of the True Meaning of Christmas.”
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We all have gifts which can make a difference. Fictional Billionaire Christian Nicholas used his to bring hope and joy to thousands of children and adults. President Trump is using his to try and save a nation.
This Christmas season – and beyond – which gifts of yours can make a difference for those most in need? Merry Christmas.
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