Ross Perot - Prairie Populist, Prophet and Presidential King Maker Dies - June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019 - Great Patriot, American and Friend

There will never be another quite like the quiet man from Texas who turned the world of politics upside down.  For several years between his first run for president in 1992 and second run for president in 1996 I had the pleasure of working for Ross Perot on his presidential campaigns and his efforts to unite the independents of America.

Perot was most likely everything everybody said about him because he was the stuff of legends, the subject of a feature film, and the friend of every family who lost a loved one in the Vietnam war.  He became a billionaire by anticipating the sudden rise of the data processing field.  Then he devoted his life to helping people, always with an engaging smile.

I could write a book about the experiences we had working with Mr. Perot but I could never do justice to describing the type of man he became.  He was the most successful third party candidate in a presidential election since Teddy Roosevelt ran in 1912 and knocked an incumbent president out of office, as Perot did in 1992.

But that was a very small part of a mighty big man.  A few highlights of the stories he shared with me.

Perot was the only individual who owned an original copy of the English Magna Carta.

He bought most of the historical artifacts of the Soviet space program after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

When two of his employees were taken prisoner in the Iranian revolution and President Carter could do nothing to save them Peror created his own revolutionary force to go save them and bring them home.

Before he proposed public policy solutions he personally funded efforts to test his new concepts in the areas of health care and education where he underwrote a hospital and provided a high school for the low income and minority students to prove they were equal to the performance of other schools with high standards and success.

Everyone recognized him on the streets, even when he came for meetings in our New York City offices.  Perot refused to ride in a limo and if one was sent for him he rode in the front seat with the driver.

He personally knew and remembered the names of the doormen, elevator operators, and maintenance workers in our 28 story building and would stop to ask them how their families were doing.

Untold thousands of children of soldiers missing in action or prisoners of war went to college through his generosity and dedication to the military.

His campaign charts and graphs became legendary yet were valuable in helping people understand the bureaucracy and politicians.

Perot and Steve Jobs

Ross Perot was a true American success story, self-made and dedicated to helping all people improve their standard of living and quality of life.

A devoted friend of all military and veterans and their families, loyal to the point of risking his life to save his employees, and powerful enough to help control the agenda for the American political races, he is truly the last of the great prairie populists, political prophets, and thorn in the side of the political establishment.

He will be missed.

Following is an article about Ross I wrote, followed by tributes from the Associated Press and CNBC.

Coltons Point Times     

Exactly 27 years ago George Bush, Sr.,  was running for re-election as president of the United States and being challenged by a young, upstart Democrat and Governor of Arkansas named Bill Clinton.  And then there was that shrill talking, billionaire from Texas named Ross Perot who was trying to launch the first successful third party campaign since Teddy Roosevelt just after the turn of the last century.

For historians let me set the record straight.  Yes Teddy was elected vice president in 1900 and became president when President William McKinley was shot September 6 and died September 14 of 1901, his first year in office.  Teddy was then elected by a landslide in 1904.

In 1908 he supported his secretary of war, William Howard Taft for president and Taft won.  By the end of Taft's first term Roosevelt felt Taft no longer served the people and when he failed to beat Taft at the GOP convention he started a third party, the Bull Moose (progressive) party to oppose the president.

This is where the parallels between Ross Perot and Teddy Roosevelt become intertwined as if history was simply repeating itself about 100 years later.

In the election of 1912 Republican President Taft got 23% of the vote, Independent Roosevelt got 27% of the vote, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson became president with just 42% of the vote.  Thus Roosevelt blocked Taft from being re-elected and made Wilson President.

After his first term in office in 1992 President Bush was running for re-election riding the popularity of Desert Storm when Ross Perot, a former Republican like Teddy Roosevelt, came out of nowhere with his Independent campaign.

In the election of 1992 Republican President Bush got 38% of the vote, Independent Ross Perot got 19% of the vote, and Democrat Bill Clinton became president with just 43% of the vote.  Thus Perot blocked Bush from being re-elected and made Clinton President.

During Clinton's first term Ross Perot sought to influence the national agenda focusing on three issues, the NAFTA economic treaty, Health Care Reform and rebuilding our educational system.

He opposed NAFTA, an issue Clinton co-opted from the GOP because he was in danger of losing his re-election campaign.  Perot warned passage of NAFTA would lead to the destruction of our manufacturing industries and we would lose millions of jobs to Mexico and other countries.  Clinton got it passed and the final nail was driven into the coffin of America's once dominate manufacturing base.

On health care Perot warned the lack of cost controls would bankrupt America, and any government entitlement programs regarding health care like Medicare and Medicaid would drive the American deficit beyond our capacity to pay.  In 1996 the US national debt was $107.4 billion under Clinton and by 1998 would become a surplus through Bush in 2001.

Today the National debt stands at a record $17 trillion, thanks in large part to runaway entitlement costs as predicted by Perot.  In fact America spends more per capita than any other nation on health care yet ranks just 37th in the world in terms of quality of health care.

Finally, Perot was so disgusted with the deficiencies in our education system that he started his own high school in Dallas and was to set records for educational achievement and college attendance by urban youth.  Today our educational system continues to spend more per pupil than any other nation and we still are failing in terms of the quality of educational care.

Sooo, Ross Perot, the caricature from Texas who dared challenge the American two-party system was a figment of historical déjà vu showing up 100 years after Teddy Roosevelt played the same role for America.

Both were prophets in terms of warning of the dangers faced by America and both greatly influenced the national agenda and debate.  A couple of obscure Democrats owe their fortune and fame (Wilson and Clinton) to these political rebels.  At the same time, the failure of our government to heed the warnings of these two left us floundering in the winds of indecision as our judicial system seemed to collapse, our health care costs spiraled out of control, our manufacturing base vanished away, our educational system continued to flounder and our national debt reached epic proportions.

More on the Prairie Prophet from Texas later as the story of Ross Perot and his unbending care for the nation, commitment to veterans, exceptional patriotism and whose incredible rescue of his employees from the prison of Iran after the failure of President Carter to protect our own embassy in the fall of Iran to the Ayatollah is one of the greatest stories of courage to ever take place in our nation.

US hostages in Iran 1979

Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot dies at 89

 DAVID KOENIG,Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — H. Ross Perot, the colorful, self-made Texas billionaire who rose from a childhood of Depression-era poverty and twice ran for president as a third-party candidate, has died. He was 89.

The cause of death was leukemia, a family spokesman said Tuesday.

Perot, whose 19% of the vote in 1992 stands among the best showings by an independent candidate in the past century, died early Tuesday at his home in Dallas surrounded by his devoted family, family spokesman James Fuller said.

As a boy in Texarkana, Texas, Perot delivered newspapers from the back of a pony. He earned his billions in a more modern way, however. After attending the U.S. Naval Academy and becoming a salesman for IBM, he went his own way — creating and building Electronic Data Systems Corp., which helped other companies manage their computer networks.

Yet the most famous event in his business career didn't involve sales and earnings; he financed a private commando raid in 1979 to free two EDS employees who were being held in a prison in Iran. The tale was turned into a book and a movie.

"I always thought of him as stepping out of a Norman Rockwell painting and living the American dream," said Tom Luce, who was a young lawyer when Perot hired him to handle his business and personal legal work. "A newspaper boy, a midshipman, shaking Dwight Eisenhower's hand at his graduation, and he really built the computer-services industry at EDS."

"He had the vision and the tenacity to make it happen," Luce said. "He was a great communicator. He never employed a speechwriter — he wrote all his own speeches. He was a great storyteller."

Perot first became known to Americans outside of business circles by claiming that the U.S. government left behind hundreds of American soldiers who were missing or imprisoned at the end of the Vietnam War. Perot fanned the issue at home and discussed it privately with Vietnamese officials in the 1980s, angering the Reagan administration, which was formally negotiating with Vietnam's government.

Perot's wealth, fame and confident prescription for the nation's economic ills propelled his 1992 campaign against President George H.W. Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton. Some Republicans blamed him for Bush's loss to Clinton as Perot garnered the largest percentage of votes for a third-party candidate since former President Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 bid.

During the campaign, Perot spent $63.5 million of his own money and bought 30-minute television spots. He used charts and graphs to make his points, summarizing them with a line that became a national catchphrase: "It's just that simple."

Perot's second campaign four years later was far less successful. He was shut out of presidential debates when organizers said he lacked sufficient support. He got just 8% of the vote, and the Reform Party that he founded and hoped to build into a national political force began to fall apart.

However, Perot's ideas on trade and deficit reduction remained part of the political landscape. He blamed both major parties for running up a huge federal budget deficit and allowing American jobs to be sent to other countries. The movement of U.S. jobs to Mexico, he said, created a "giant sucking sound."

Perot continued to speak out about federal spending for many years. In 2008, he launched a website to highlight the nation's debt with a ticker that tracked the rising total, a blog and a chart presentation.

Henry Ross Perot was born in Texarkana on June 27, 1930. His father was a cotton broker; his mother a secretary. Perot said his family survived the Depression relatively well through hard work and by managing their money carefully.

Young Perot's first job was delivering papers in a poor, mostly black part of town from his pony, Miss Bee. When the newspaper tried to cut his commission, he said he complained to the publisher — and won. He said that taught him to take problems straight to the top.

From Texarkana, Perot went to the U.S. Naval Academy even though he had never been on a ship or seen the ocean. After the Navy, Perot joined International Business Machines in 1955 and quickly became a top salesman. In his last year at IBM, he filled his sales quota for the year in January.

In 1962, with $1,000 from his wife, Margot, Perot founded Electronic Data Systems. Hardware accounted for about 80% of the computer business, Perot said, and IBM wasn't interested in the other 20%, including services.

Many of the early hires at EDS were former military men, and they had to abide by Perot's strict dress code — white shirts, ties, no beards or mustaches — and long workdays. Many had crew cuts, like Perot.

The company's big break came in the mid-1960s when the federal government created Medicare and Medicaid, the health programs for seniors, the disabled and the poor. States needed help in running the programs, and EDS won contracts — starting in Texas — to handle the millions of claims.

EDS first sold stock to the public in 1968, and overnight, Perot was worth $350 million. His fortune doubled and tripled as the stock price rose steadily.

In 1984, he sold control of the company to General Motors Corp. for $2.5 billion and received $700 million in a buyout. In 2008, EDS was sold to Hewlett-Packard Co.

Perot went on to establish another computer-services company, Perot Systems Corp. He retired as CEO in 2000 and was succeeded by his son, Ross Perot Jr. In 2009, Dell Inc. bought Perot Systems.

Forbes magazine this year estimated Perot's wealth at $4.1 billion.

Perot was not immune to mistakes in business. His biggest might have been a 1971 investment in duPont Glore Forgan, then one of the biggest brokerage houses on Wall Street. The administration of President Richard Nixon asked Perot to save the company to head off an investor panic, and he also poured money into another troubled brokerage, Walston & Co., but wound up losing much of his $100 million investment.

It was during the Nixon administration that Perot became involved in the issue of U.S. prisoners of war in Southeast Asia. Perot said Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked him to lead a campaign to improve treatment of POWs held in North Vietnam. Perot chartered two jets to fly medical supplies and the wives of POWs to Southeast Asia. They were not allowed into North Vietnam, but the trip attracted enormous media attention.

After their release in 1973, some prisoners said conditions in the camps had improved after the failed missions.

In 1979, the Iranian government jailed two EDS executives and Perot vowed to win their release.

"Ross came to the prison one day and said, 'We're going to get you out,'" one of the men, Paul Chiapparone, told The Associated Press. "How many CEOs would do that today?"

Perot recruited retired U.S. Army Special Forces Col. Arthur "Bull" Simons to lead a commando raid on the prison. A few days later, the EDS executives walked free after the shah's regime fell and mobs stormed the prison. Simons' men sneaked the executives out of the country and into Turkey. The adventure was recalled in Ken Follett's best-selling book "On Wings of Eagles" and a TV miniseries.

In later years, Perot pushed the Veterans Affairs Department to study neurological causes of Gulf War syndrome, a mysterious illness reported by many soldiers who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf war. He scoffed at officials who blamed the illnesses on stress — "as if they are wimps" — and paid for additional research.

Perot received a special award from the VA for his support of veterans and the military in 2009.

In Texas, Perot led commissions on education reform and crime. He was given many honorary degrees and awards for business success and patriotism.

Former President George W. Bush said in a statement that "Texas and America have lost a strong patriot."

"Ross Perot epitomized the entrepreneurial spirit and the American creed. He gave selflessly of his time and resources to help others in our community, across our country, and around the world," Bush said. "He loved the U.S. military and supported our service members and veterans. Most importantly, he loved his dear wife, children, and grandchildren."

While he worked at Perot Systems in suburban Dallas, entire hallways were filled with memorabilia from soldiers and POWs that Perot had helped. His personal office was dominated by large paintings of his wife and five children and bronze sculptures by Frederic Remington.

Several original Norman Rockwell paintings hung in the waiting area, and Perot once told a visiting reporter that he tried to live by Rockwell's ethics of hard, honest work and family.

___

Associated Press writer Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.

CNBC

Former presidential candidate Ross Perot dies at 89

July 9, 2019

Kevin Breuninger@KEVINWILLIAMB

Billionaire businessman, philanthropist and independent presidential candidate Ross Perot is dead at 89, CNBC has confirmed.

Perot, who ran for president in 1992 and 1996, died after a five-month battle with leukemia, said James Fuller, a representative for the Perot family.

“In business and in life, Ross was a man of integrity and action. A true American patriot and a man of rare vision, principle and deep compassion, he touched the lives of countless people through his unwavering support of the military and veterans and through his charitable endeavors,” Fuller said in a statement.

Perot is survived by his wife, Margot, his five children and 16 grandchildren.

Perot was an early tech entrepreneur. He started his career in sales at IBM, where he excelled. In 1962, he founded his first company, Electronic Data Systems, with just $1,000 in savings. More than two decades later, he launched information technology services provider Perot Systems, which was acquired in 2009 by Dell for $3.9 billion.

As a disruptive third-party candidate for president, Perot ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and protectionism. He won nearly 19% of the vote in the 1992 race — by far the biggest slice of the electorate for a third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party in the 1912 election.

1968: American businessman H. Ross Perot holding a business machine manufactured by his company, Electronic Data Systems, Dallas, Texas.

Shel Hershorn | Getty Images

Perot stood out from the political crowd for his quirks as much as his business credentials and lack of experience in establishment politics. “I don’t have any experience in running up a $4 trillion debt. I don’t have any experience in gridlock government, where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else,” he said in a 1992 presidential debate. The shifting of U.S. jobs to Mexico created a “giant sucking sound,” he famously said during the campaign.

Perot participated in all three presidential debates in that election, and took a nontraditional campaign route by booking lengthy time slots on network television to lay out his political views.

He was “certainly the most influential political force in the late 20th century from outside the regular party system,” said Allan Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University.

Lichtman told CNBC he had been tapped to write a biography of Perot, and Lichtman had agreed. But “quirky Ross Perot, just like he pulled out of the presidential race, he pulled out of the biography,” Lichtman said.

Perot was a veteran, and followed his service with a lifetime commitment to supporting U.S. veterans, especially during the Vietnam War. He was honored in 2009 by then-Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake for his advocacy efforts.

Presidential candidate Ross Perot speaks during the 1992 Presidential Debates.

Wally McNamee | Corbis Historical | Getty Images

Perot’s death led to an outpouring of warmth from figures in the political world.

Former President George W. Bush said in a statement to NBC News that “Texas and America have lost a strong patriot” in Perot.

“Ross Perot epitomized the entrepreneurial spirit and the American creed. He gave selflessly of his time and resources to help others in our community, across our country, and around the world. He loved the U.S. military and supported our service members and veterans. Most importantly, he loved his dear wife, children, and grandchildren. Laura and I send our heartfelt condolences to the entire Perot family as they celebrate a full life,” Bush said.

Former Vice President Al Gore said that he “always had the utmost respect for Ross Perot, for his patriotism, love of country, and extraordinary commitment to our veterans. I send my deepest condolences to his family and to everyone who loved and admired him.”

In his final interview with the Dallas News in 2016, Perot shrugged off a question about his legacy, saying “Aw, I don’t worry about that.”

His parting words in that interview, however, were well considered: “Texas born. Texas bred. When I die, I’ll be Texas dead. Ha!”

He died at his home in Dallas, in the company of his family.

— CNBC’s Tucker Higgins contributed to this report.

The Melchizedek Chronicles - What to do about Trump! What is the right thing to do about Trump!

Like him or not, Trump was elected President of the United States of America and he deserves a fair chance to fulfill his destiny as all presidents have been given.

America is a beacon of light to the world because it has never wavered from the underlying principles upon which it was founded, freedom, equal opportunity, individual liberty and justice for all.

It is a nation of diversity in religion, culture, race and opportunity whose strength is found in a divinely inspired ability to demonstrate to the world that our Republic transcends special interests and seeks out fair compromise.

We are competitive, yet will always accept the will of the people in the end, because standing as one is always stronger and serves the greatest good for all.

Throughout our history there have been many hard fought and derisive presidential elections, but in the end the people of America come together and support the winner in order to honor the will of the people.

Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt are a sampling of those presidents who overcame tremendous opposition, division and disruption in order to help heal our nation and keep it on track during dangerous times in our history.

Divine destiny guides this nation, thrusting the most unlikely of people into roles they never expected to play to preserve the Republic and give hope to the world.

Sadly, our recent presidential election came at a time when darkness was beginning to shroud our principles and empower those whose own interests overshadowed the interests of the people.

Hatred and animosity between political parties, philosophies, the news media and bureaucracy were clouding the actions and judgments of people and assured there would be no healing after the election.

Twenty days before the presidential election, when Trump looked like there was no chance to stop the Clinton machine, I posted an article as a contributor on the most liberal of all media outlets, the Huffington Post, and it described what would happen election night with Trump finally winning in the middle of the night to the shock of the media, the candidates, the political pundits, the nation and the world.  On election day it happened almost exactly as I wrote it would.  Ironically, on the morning of election day the Huffington Post declared to the world Hillary Clinton would win.

Sometimes there is no explanation for destiny.  Sometimes there are divine interventions to keep the world on track.  Sometimes, as Melchizedek says, we have to look for the good in adversity.  President Trump’s election victory may very well be one of those moments.  You do not always have to be the good guy to get good things done, and there is little doubt that America faced a dark future if things did not change.

Polarization was becoming a dark, powerful force on the political horizon before Trump got elected.  The previous Administrations sold out the people to appease special interests, as in financial, banking, defense, pharmaceutical drugs and health care interests.

Our Constitutional government was being undermined by a series of selfish and greedy actions to protect the wealthy at the expense of the people.  Things were not improving, they were getting worse and politicians were in the middle of a firestorm.  Campaign finance laws were thrown out, thus opening the floodgates to unlimited money flowing to the political campaign committees.

As jobs were lost, health care did not improve, but the cost of health care, and prescription drugs spiraled out of control.  Home mortgages were fraudulent, college tuition costs exploded, jobs were moved out of the country, unnecessary wars were being fought, draconian government acts hurt the people, and billions upon billions of dollars flowed into the coffers of a very small group of very wealthy people.

Corruption came to a head when the Bill Clinton administration regulatory reforms, on top of the Clinton NAFTA trade agreement, triggered the ENRON disaster and the subprime mortgage crisis nearly destroying the nation’s economy in 2008.

The Obama administration recovery program and Obamacare signed into law March 23, 2010, his only major legislative accomplishment, opened the door further to protecting financial and auto corporations and the pharmaceutical industry price increases among other consequences.

Of course, throughout the Bush and Obama administrations, war after war further fueled the military industrial complex and drained the economy.

From 1996 (Clinton) to 2008 (Obama) the cost of the presidential campaigns more than doubled and Obama broke the billion-dollar glass ceiling on his way to a job that paid $400,000 a year.  Money, power and prestige now controlled the presidency, shielded corruption, protected special interests, made the rich a lot wealthier, made middle class former presidents multi-millionaires, and seduced the media because of the billions and billions of dollars pouring into political campaigns.

That brings us to the 2016 election and Hillary Clinton, the heir apparent to the political machine built by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama with access to huge wealth thanks to Goldman Sachs and others deeply imbedded in the Clinton and Obama organizations, and the ability to implement special interest regulatory reforms.

All was good for the long-term future of the new political Establishment and to the media it was just a matter of anointing Hillary Clinton queen.  No one could stand up to the Clinton – Obama machine.  Things looked quite rosy for the liberals, progressives, the new Establishment, the media parasites, financial manipulators, endless special interest groups throwing money at the politicians, and the bureaucratic structure responsible for maintaining the cozy relationship and keeping their jobs.

After the Bush years followed by the Obama Hollywood presidency a Clinton ordination was imminent.  Who was left to defend the people and oversee the new Establishment when that Establishment included all the former watchdogs and protectors of the public interest?

To anyone with a clear head it was blatantly obvious the media, once protector of the people, changed sides and was now engaged in destroying anyone who might threaten the Hillary dream machine.

Ask Bernie Sanders if the deck was stacked against him and what it was like to be a threat.  He had no chance of a fair primary against Hillary thanks to the Obama super delegates secretly pledged to Clinton, the fundraising monopoly of the Obama/Clinton Establishment, and the secret buyout of the supposedly independent DNC by the Clinton campaign.

All the special interests were involved and protected and even the bureaucracy was on board since the Obama appointees effectively controlled the wheels of justice and would remain in control under the Clinton succession.  Self-preservation of jobs for thousands of high-paid government appointees was a strong incentive to bend over backwards to protect your patron.

Perhaps there is no greater threat to the American democracy than when the Fourth Estate, the Constitutionally protected defenders of freedom of speech, give up their objectivity and take sides in an election.  The Bill Clinton and Obama years proved too strong a seduction for the free press to remain free.

There was a strange conglomeration of events coming together which forever changed the face and action of the media.  Huge corporations began buying up the 25,000 media outlets in America and applying profit demands on the news groups.  The news reporters, long free of the pressure to make money for their organizations, suddenly became the avenue for survival with their access to the politicians who were fast becoming the biggest spenders in media.

With the broadcast and cable news consolidations there was no way to go back.  When the Internet suddenly exploded beginning during the Clinton years but rapidly overtaking all traditional media in the Obama years, the same special interests that controlled the politicians could compromise the independence of the media.

Former media measures of integrity like objectivity, independence, and investigative reporting became tools to protect the establishment by using them as opposition weapons for the political campaigns.  It was now possible for the news media to become the makers of news rather than reporters, and for the reporters to become celebrities and news makers.

With the Internet news dominating the minds of the public twenty-four hours a day, they were free to inject bias, unregulated, unethical and immoral news content to a mesmerized public.  Preservation of the Clinton/Obama Establishment was the core of the hypnotic messaging coordinated throughout the broadcast, cable and Internet news services.

For the first time in our history most of the independent media took sides, with a constant and coordinated campaign to preserve the Establishment fueled by the never-ending billions of special interest dollars.

Such mass messaging with the hypnotic consistency of constant repetition while no effort is being made to validate facts, and autonomous sources now dominate the news, is a recipe for disaster.  Of course, anyone against that Establishment whether moderate or conservative is the enemy.

No professional politician could challenge the control of the money brokers, special interests and media because they were products of the same Establishment.  If America was ever to get back to the political center where it was most comfortable, it would take a total outsider to make the challenge.

Such an outsider would have to be meaner, tougher, stronger, more independent and non-political while being far removed from the political and financial establishment controlling our nation.  At the same time, they would have to be indifferent and unafraid of the news media sworn to protect the status quo and destroy opposition.

Finding a disrupter of that magnitude seemed impossible.  Then along came Trump swaggering down the sweeping escalator of the swank and mysterious Trump Tower, cocky, a true non-politician, yet an ivy leaguer and quite rich.  Not a politician but well experienced in the entertainment media he had no fear of the power of the press.  In fact, Trump used the Internet for his own direct media connection to the people through the use of Tweets.

Wealthy enough to not need to make money if he was elected, he did not trust the stock markets so he was not beholden to most of the financial sector.  Choosing to largely ignore the media and political parties, he was confident he could improve the lives of others because he knew, as a businessman, how the game was played.

As a result of these things he was free to do or say whatever he wanted and there were no strings attached.  Most likely to his surprise, and certainly to the shock of Obama, Clinton, the news media, the wealthy, the Establishment, the nation and rest of the world, he beat all the odds and the morning after the election, November 9, the world awoke to the astonishing news that Donald Trump would be the forty-fifth president of the United States.

Nothing like the forty-four presidents who preceded him.  Cocky but not particularly polished. No politician, Loyal to neither political party.  Suspicious of the news media.  Could care less what the media or professional politicians thought of him.

Oh, he has his faults but somehow, he connects to people, never talking over their head.  He speaks a truth they understand, says what is on his mind that others would never dare say.  Sometimes he is loose with the facts, but most politicians are that way.

Upsetting – yes.  Lacks diplomacy – sometimes.  Demonstrates anger – sure when warranted.  Not a polished statesman – never said he was one.  Has regrets – hardly.  Fears failure – has no idea what that means.

Trump is Trump.  What you see and hear is what you get.  A rock-solid patriot.  A protector of all people.  A defender of American values.  Champion of American greatness.

My next article will address what is being done to lift the shadow of darkness enveloping America through Trump, in spite of the refusal by much of the media and establishment to accept him as president.  What is the role of divine intervention and destiny in the reign of President Trump?  Finally, what are the consequences for those dedicated to denying him his rightful destiny.