Ten Nice Things about Donald Trump

If Donald Trump needs my vote to win the nomination, he will not win the nomination of Lincoln’s Party. Yet my family has a tradition that we must think of five nice things to say of a man before we are critical. I have no favorite yet in this GOP primary since Theodore Roosevelt refused to leave GOP Paradise to run, but Trump would not be my first choice.

Still he is the frontrunner so before I say anything else about him here are ten nice things about Donald Trump . . . doubling the normal number since he is decided to side with the Grand Old Party.

Donald Trump confounds the establishment.

I think people are sick of message testing where people say things they don’t mean, because pollsters tell them to say things. Donald Trump says what he thinks. Many times they are things that a big chunk of Americans also think but nobody says. I don’t have to like those things, but Donald Trump is giving them a voice. They are out there and now somebody is bold enough to say them.

Good for you, Donald Trump. Good for you for telling the cocktail circuit to go to the devil.

Donald Trump is self-funding his campaign.

I cannot be the only American that worries that people get the candidate for which they paid. The Donald has bought candidates and is willing to say so. As a result, he is the first candidate to say: “I cannot be bought because I refuse their money. I do not need it.”

This does not make him a good man, but it does make him his own man.

Donald Trump says what he thinks.

No manager advised Trump to attack Megan Kelley. Nobody thinks it was prudent to attack the looks of a female candidate. Whatever the Donald thinks, the Donald says. Donald Trump may be the first candidate where the Id is his Super Ego.

Donald Trump is puckish.

Even when he offends me, Donald Trump can be funny. Everything is tongue-in-cheek in Trump World. He is still the lad who had to be sent to military school for being naughty. He is Peter Pan and he says “Cock-a-doodle-doo” every day.

Donald Trump is unafraid to be Donald Trump.

Al Gore looked afraid of his own ambition. George W. Bush looked to his father. Barack Obama carried the dreams of his father and the suppressed ambition of his mother. John McCain was a broken hero. Donald Trump is joyously, boisterously, in love with being Donald Trump.

Donald Trump enjoys being alive.

Donald Trump has fun. He has a helicopter and he enjoys letting kids ride in it. He is the kind of guy who should have money because he enjoys risking and spending it. He has made mistakes, but he never plays it safe. If there was a good time to be had, I bet Donald Trump had it.

Donald Trump does not fake religion.

Donald Trump is no atheist, but he is not a pious man. He does not pretend, like so many obnoxious hypocrites, to be a pious man. Aren’t you a bit glad? Donald Trump has more ex-wives than any president ever. Donald Trump isn’t a great man, he isn’t a very good man, but he is a man.

Donald Trump is a natty dresser.

Donald Trump has a sense of style that is his own. I could not do what he does. Nobody can do what he does, but he is a natty dresser. He wears clothes that fit him, which he likes, and are impervious to trends.

Donald Trump is street smart.

Trump likes to boast about his brains and he is right. He is street smart. He is not bookish like Obama or a wonk like Bill Clinton. Trump knows how to win even when he loses. He is the kid who finishes last and then last becomes cool.

Donald goes by Donald and not “Don.”

His parents named him “Donald” and nobody shortens his name. He insists we call him “Donald” to the point that he has surpassed any Donald without the family name “Duck.” You have to admire his familial piety.

And there are ten nice things about Donald Trump. Let the primaries begin.