Donald Trump will deliver a speech in my hometown area today, in Phoenix, Arizona, in two hours. Three weeks ago, the brash, bombastic, billionaire entered the race for the Republican nomination for president of the USA. He will speak about “illegal immigration and other topics.” The other topics will probably include braggadocio about his net worth being $9 billion, how he will restore jobs to our country if elected president and regain our supposedly lost reputation worldwide by applying his successful business techniques to world governments, especially China who he says is ripping us Americans off by many means including manipulating of currency. You can bet it will be national news.
Donald Trump was well named. He constantly trumpets himself. He is a cartoon character who right now looks like a serious contender for the Republican nomination of U.S. president. But that could change any minute with his unscripted, long-winded remarks to the media. Some polls have him in second place behind former Florida governor and member of the presidential Bush family–Jeb Bush. Trump verbally stomps all kinds of people. He says if Hilary Clinton, the leading contender for Democratic nominee, becomes president, she will be “the worst president the U.S. has ever had.” Trump draws angry people, for “a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15.1).
Jeb Bush knows a thing or two about illegal immigration. He is from the border state Texas, where I lived for nearly forty years. He met his pretty wife Columba in Mexico, where she was born, when they were teenagers. If Trump becomes a serious contender for the Republican nomination, a televised debate about illegal immigration between the Donald and Jeb could get interesting. Despite Trump’s caustic, blustery style, he gets a lot of people listening to him who take him serious.
But not me. Donald Trump trumpets himself way too much for me. He doesn’t get his cues from the Bible. The book of Proverbs, among the wisdom literature in the Bible, says such things as “pride goes before destruction” (16.18); “Let another praise you and not your own mouth” (27.2); “sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness” (16.21); “a rich man is wise in his own eyes” (28.11); “Do you see a man who is hasty in his own words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (29.20).
One of my favorite tournaments to play in every year on the PGA Tour was the Doral Open at the Doral Country Club Resort in Miami, Florida. In 1966, the beginning of my second full year on the PGA Tour, I had my first chance to win, and it was at this tournament. I loved playing that golf course, called “the Blue Monster.” It’s 18th hole has always been, and still is, rated as the toughest finishing hole of any regular tournaments on the PGA Tour. I lost that tournament at Doral by one stroke when my ten-foot birdie on the 72nd hole, thus the end of the tournament, stopped on the lip of the cup, with part of the ball hanging over the hole. If only there would have been a earthquake then.
That tournament is still on the PGA Tour. Now, its one of the elite, few WGC tournaments on Tour. And the resort is now owned by Donald Trump and renamed Trump National Doral. Yeah, he has to have his name on everything he owns. Would I still enjoy that tournament as much as I used to, now that Mr. Trump owns the place? I don’t know. One of my main Tour caddies, Big Sam, lived in NYC and sometimes caddied for the Donald at Winged Foot Golf Club. As expected he always paid well–$200.
Donald Trump tarnished his political reputation this week by saying U.S. politicians are stupid and Mexico’s politicians are smart because they are sending their unwanted citizens, such as drug dealers and rapists, to the U.S. as illegal immigrants. Trump says if he is elected president, he will absolutely put a stop to that by erecting a wall across the entire 2,000 mile U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. But he provides no details about how he will force Mexico do that. Sounds like a big pipe dream to me.
Yet walls are the future. In my next, and third, yet unpublished book in my Still Here series on Bible prophecy, I have a chapter about how the Bible predicts that in our future there will be many walls between countries and walled fortresses as centers of governmental power. This will be further exacerbated when the world begins to disarm itself of not only nuclear but conventional weapons. The most prominent biblical portion that requires such world disarmament is Ezekiel 38-39.
Well, the wind is not blowing today here in Phoenix. So, the Donald doesn’t have to worry about his heavily-sprayed blond hair getting messed up. BTW, I think the Donald should tell his hair stylist, “You’re fired!”
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