Dakota Beacon

In the final days of what is arguably the most remarkable first term in Presidential history, let’s take a moment to look back – not necessarily at the many great accomplishments of President Donald J. Trump, although they are well deserving of their own tome and we can be sure such a volume will someday be written – but at the lessons he taught us over the past four years.  President Trump is not your average president.  He is unshakable, incorruptible, patriotic through and through, and beloved.  He is a role model for all of us.

Here, in no particular order, are some of those lessons.  May they inspire you to lead by example as you follow his.

Lesson One: Never give up.

How many times have you heard someone tell you, “Give it up.”  “Get over it.”  “Move on, you’ve lost.”  But what if you haven’t really lost?  Should you really give up?  Imagine that you’re on the mound for Game 7 of the World Series, and the other team’s hopes rest on the abilities of a scrawny, .224 hitter who has gone 0 for 9 over the entire playoffs.  This slip of a fellow comes to the plate and smacks your 100mph fastball 420 feet clear over the center field fence.  He has never done such a thing before.  Don’t you want to know if something is up with his bat?  It sure seems like there was cork in that bat.  So you ask the umpire to take a close look at the bat.  But the umpire and the opposing team instead tell you, “Yeah, right.  There’s no cork in that bat.  Give it up, move on, you’ve lost.”

Trump has taught us that when we have reason to believe that there may be fraud or any form of cheating, it is incumbent upon us to insist on an investigation.  This is not a selfish act.  You, as the pitcher on the mound in the above scenario, have a team counting on you to do the right thing.  The right thing, when there is something suspicious, is to speak up and demand an investigation.  (You’ve heard the expression, “See something, say something.”)  As Trump and his legal team have clearly shown, there is plenty of evidence that the 2020 presidential election was wrought with fraud, but Trump has stood up for himself, and most importantly, for the American people, and insisted that these allegations be considered and that the truth be exposed.

Despite being excoriated in the mainstream “legacy” media for not doing what previous presidential candidates have done – conceding – Trump has not caved into the pressure to concede.  He knows better.  But besides that, this is just one of his many fine character traits and one he solidified over a lifetime of never giving up.

Lesson Two: Be patient.

The 2020 election process has been a true test of our patience.  We all want it to come to its just conclusion, because frankly we’re going crazy with the suspense.  No one alive today remembers an American election that has taken so long to be resolved.  We’re used to watching the returns coming in, the states getting called, a winner declared and a loser conceding, all in the same night.  But with the very future of our Republic riding on this election, not only are we chomping at the bit to know the outcome, we have also never cared so much about who ultimately rests his hand on that Bible on Inauguration Day.  We all know who won, the vast majority of us are thrilled that it’s Trump for a second term, yet even with the election being “officially” certified by Congress for Joe Biden, there continues to be evidence that this certification is invalid and the results must not stand as Congress certified them in the early morning hours of 7 January, 2021.  As of 15 January, the outcome remains in doubt: will Trump be able to demonstrate once and for all that the official results must be invalidated due to the copious amounts of fraud, before the last rose petal falls off the rose?

Some say he has a plan.  Many strategies have been posited by a variety of pundits over the last few weeks, many paths to victory have been explored.  But while we are pushed ever closer to our wits’ end, we must remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the greatest sting operation in the history of the world wasn’t carried out in a night, a week, or even a month.  We really don’t have a choice but to wait.  We just have to understand that we don’t know everything, and soon enough, we will know more than we ever imagined.

Trump reminds us that good things come to those who wait, or as he likes to say, “The Best is Yet to Come.”  In other words, that for which we are so desperately waiting will be very much worth that wait. 

Lesson Three: Keep your promises.

If you were fortunate enough to attend any of the President’s rallies in the months leading up to Election Day, you might have your very own rally sign that says “Promises Made, Promises Kept.”  During his first campaign, Trump made a lot of promises.  It’s something you always hear politicians give lip service to while on the campaign trail, at debates, in commercials, and on those things you get in the mail.  A politician making promises is a song as old as rhyme.  But, as now-President Trump has said at his famous, record-shattering rallies, “If I don’t sound like a typical politician, it’s because I’m not a politician!” 

And Trump has not only lived up to his ambitious promises to Make America Great Again, BIGLY, he has delivered even more than he had talked about during the 2016 campaign.  From cutting taxes to building a wall along our Southern border to bringing jobs back to the United States and growing our economy, he has come through on everything he said he would do to make us a strong, proud nation again.  But wait, there’s more!  After decades of cheap talk from politicians and Pollyannas about that elusive dream of peace in the Middle East, who finally accomplished it?  President Donald J. Trump, with an assist from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the whole world is safer for it.  Other nations are building their militaries to fight wars in outer space, and Trump understood that to defend our nation from superpowers like Russia and China, we would need our very own version – and he built the United States Space Force!  Not only has Trump kept his campaign promises, but he has also surprised us with these additional contributions to humanity heretofore unexpected. 

The moral of the story is, if you say you’re going to do something that the people want, especially something bold, and you follow through on those promises, you will be very much appreciated.  This fact, and the general principle of honesty, is something Trump showed us, and his supporters showed him, at his rallies where thousands cheered.

Lesson Four: Grow a thick skin.

How does President Trump handle the pressure of running the greatest country on earth?  We all expect so much of him, and he has high expectations for himself.  But in addition to the usual stresses of being the American president, Trump is continuously and relentlessly attacked by the mainstream “fake news,” deep-state politicians and bureaucrats, assorted “woke” celebrities and people who have been fed lies from a tiny bottle with a tiny spoon and simply haven’t taken the time to research the facts about what Trump is all about.  As if the attacks in and of themselves aren’t burdensome enough, they started out vicious and have become increasingly more so with each passing year.  Now, in January 2021, they have reached a crescendo. 

For many, these attacks would be unbearable.  How many of us feel the pain he refuses to let us see?  He must be made of Teflon-coated titanium or otherwise he just doesn’t let us see the broken heart he must be sweeping up every day.  He is a human being with big feelings just like anyone else but those who attack him don’t see him that way.  To those people, he is just a face of a movement they don’t approve or don’t understand.  “They’re not after me, they’re after you; I’m just in their way,” Trump has famously said.  We take the attacks on our President personally, because he is one of us, so you bet we feel pain. 

Not everyone you meet in life is going to love you.  Some people might even make life very difficult at times.  It’s just how it is, but unpleasant people needn’t be your undoing.  Trump has a thick skin because he had to develop it or he wouldn’t have come as far as he has.  He also knows that the hate is nothing compared to the love, and that buoys him and lets him know that we are likewise standing in the way of the haters.  Turn to those who love you and away from anyone who spews hatred, let it roll off you like water off a duck’s back, and do a little dance once in a while – it brings a smile to the right people, always.

Lesson Five: Take risks.

Few people would put everything on the line for their country, as President Trump has.  He’s known for taking risks, because success doesn’t just happen or get handed to you.  He had built a beautiful life for himself and his family, and although others in America were generally struggling from a decimated economy during the Obama era, Trump was in a very comfortable situation financially.  Trump did not wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll run for president.”  He was recruited.  This was a big ask, and one which he didn’t consider lightly.  But when he thought about all the damage done by the then-current administration, he came to the determination that he could not sit by and watch Hillary Rodham Clinton pick up where Barack Obama was about to leave off.  It would be a disaster if the Republican Party didn’t have a bona fide candidate to challenge her. 

Donald Trump knew that America was worth fighting for.  So after careful consideration, discussing it with his wife and children, and with a deep understanding of what was really, actually being asked of him, he made his decision.  And Donald Trump threw his hat into the ring.  It would be the greatest risk he would ever take. 

Life will present you with many opportunities of all types and risk levels.  An opportunity to do something you’ve always dreamed of doing, or never imagined you would do, is always an opportunity to grow.  You may be presented with the chance to run for office one day, and make a difference in your community or the larger world.  Or you may find yourself at a crossroads that could take you to a new city or open new doors in your career.  There is always an element of uncertainty and fear in taking risks, but as Trump has shown, the rewards for doing so can be great.  Knowing the joy of personal satisfaction or the realization that you have left the world a better place than you found it, makes the risks totally worth it.

Lesson Six: Have faith, be grateful, and don’t forget to laugh.

Four years ago, we were getting ready to inaugurate President-elect Trump.  Although he had never held political office before, we knew who he was and what he stood for.  We decided, as a country, that we were tired of the definition of insanity and that it was time to try a different kind of president.  “What have you got to lose?” he said. 

We had one big, beautiful, wonderful, irreplaceable country to lose, and recognizing that Hillary was just going to do more of the same kind of damage we had had after eight years of Obama, we went to the polls and elected Trump. 

We made the right choice.

We have had, for the past four years, a president who clearly loves and cherishes America, which is something we really haven’t had since the Reagan era.  Trump has demonstrated this every day, perhaps most of all when he has stood up for election integrity – our assurance that we continue to have the right to have our votes count.  Those of you who follow Q have read “Trust the Plan,” and those of you who follow God trust His plan.  Something else Trump has taught us is to nurture our faith.  We might not be able to see into the future, but we have faith in ourselves that we chose the best person for the job, and we have faith that the person we chose is very smart and has surrounded himself with sharp, discerning minds and will leave nothing to chance.  We have a lot to be grateful for over the last four years, and God willing, the next four.  If you watch Trump’s rallies or listen to his addresses, you’ll notice his gratitude is consistent.  He gives credit where it’s due, and he deeply appreciates his supporters, always ending his speeches and statements with “Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”  It’s a genuine sentiment and a touch of class that has been sorely missed and which we can all get behind.  And when the stress gets to be a lot, as it surely does for the President, remember that he often takes a moment to recall a funny story or tell a joke.  A sense of humor can get you through a lot!

It has been said that those of us who love President Trump have a “cult mentality,” and that to revere him as if he’s some sort of rock star is “weird.”  It may seem weird to some people, but that’s because it’s unprecedented.  There is, of course, no precedent for this.  Before Trump, the closest a president came to getting the rock-star treatment was Barack Obama, and he left a YUGE mess for his successor to clean up.  As for past presidents who had already made a name in the entertainment world, Ronald Reagan set that precedent, having been a movie star, and although Reagan is possibly the most respected and admired president of the modern era, he wasn’t battling a legacy news media hell-bent on destroying his reputation.  Looking across the pond, as beloved as Britain’s Royal Family has historically been, Trump and MAGA have seemed to top even that. 

Trump has had to deal with so much in his first four years as President, probably more than almost anyone who has ever held the office.  Sure, he had a cushy billionaire life, but he gave it up to save the world, and gets slandered mercilessly in the press for his efforts.  In President Trump we see a man who shares our values, our goals, and our love for America.  We see someone we could all aspire to be like, a man who gets back up if he gets knocked down, a man who made the American Dream come true, a one-in-a-million who is also just like us: he’s rather like an underdog, and if there’s one thing America loves, it’s a good underdog story.  

Comments:  (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)