OPINION:
Former President Donald Trump is known, in part, for his brash, often abrasive demeanor, flippant commentary and the names he conjures up for his foes.
From “Lyin’ Kamala” to “Little Marco,” Mr. Trump’s penchant for name-calling has almost ceaselessly made headlines, with the former star of “The Apprentice” attracting attention and hordes of devotees with such antics.
To say that politics have been unusual since Mr. Trump’s 2015 descent down the escalator in Trump Tower — a moment preceding his official entrance into the electoral realm — would be the understatement of the century.
Mr. Trump, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, undoubtedly traded in the glitz and glamor for political prowess, something he had long teased but most thought would never happen. And in rapid fashion, he transformed from Hollywood royalty into Democrats’ foremost nemesis.
Critics see Mr. Trump as a boisterous bully who oozes immorality and vile behavior. Too often, though, something important is lost in the debate over the former president: While he is most certainly a divisive figure, he’s also a human being who, like most of us, is complex — at moments misunderstood — and seemingly paradoxical.
Before Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential run, our paths crossed a few times. I conducted at least two interviews with him when I was the faith and culture editor at TheBlaze.
I’ll never forget our first in-person encounter in 2013, a meeting at Trump Tower in New York. I was invited to interview Mr. Trump as he sat down with the then-wife of Saeed Abedini, an Iranian American pastor who was imprisoned in Iran at the time.
Mr. Abedini’s wife had been lobbying the U.S. government to secure her husband’s release, and the point of my presence was to observe her interaction with Mr. Trump on the matter.
But by the time I arrived at Trump Tower, the meeting had ended, so I was ushered into Mr. Trump’s office to speak with him. In that discussion, Mr. Trump, who was overtly critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the situation, revealed off the record that he was deeply moved by the Abedini family’s plight — so much so that he gave them $10,000.
Mr. Trump also specifically asked that this generous gift not be reported in my story, which surprised me.
For some reason, I assumed the bombastic Mr. Trump portrayed in the media would have sought glory for the gift of money or, at the least, a modicum of credit. The conversation in which he addressed the check left me scratching my head.
It wasn’t until a few years later that Mr. Abedini, after his release, revealed the purported $10,000 donation to his family. I’ve since heard similar stories about Mr. Trump, which have further challenged the media narratives surrounding the former president.
Then, in 2016 — just weeks before Mr. Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton — I was invited to a closed-door gathering of evangelical and Catholic academics and media personalities. Many of these people had serious reservations about Mr. Trump’s candidacy and, in particular, whether he was really the proper presidential choice for the faithful.
At the time, I found it fascinating that Mr. Trump and his team would give the “never Trump” cohort time with the Republican presidential nominee, especially considering the public ways he often dismisses his dissenters.
I expected him to rant, rave and forcefully lecture about why he believed he was Christians’ best hope — how he was the man who would save evangelicals and Catholics from what he sees as the insanity of contemporary liberalism.
But Mr. Trump did none of that.
Instead, he intently listened as those gathered as they detailed their grievances and concerns over his positions and the issues facing the nation. Watching Mr. Trump — a man known more for terse speaking than for respectful dialogue — calmly observing as people spoke and then responding with questions was almost mesmerizing.
As I had been after the earlier meeting, I was surprised and bewildered. These experiences solidified an important reality: Media narratives can be a powerful driver of how we think and feel about candidates and people, particularly in a world driven by partisan outlets and their thirst for clicks.
Mr. Trump’s flippant commentary certainly feeds these narratives, but we must always come back to the aforementioned truth: People — even presidential candidates — are complex. And beyond that, they’re human.
This seems like an implicit reality. Sadly, the intensity of this election season, fears over the current state of domestic and international affairs, and the demoniacal mood of the culture encourages us to demean people to such a degree that we forget to humanize them.
And language from candidates warning that an opponent’s victory will lead to the end of America or will threaten democracy itself doesn’t help the situation. The refusal to remember that Mr. Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris and all humans are “the Imago Dei” — that is, human beings made in the image of God — is destroying our cultural underpinnings.
It’s one reason we find ourselves in a pressure cooker situation where presidential assassination attempts are becoming the norm, anger rages and the truth is almost always left on the cutting-room floor.
I’ve had no personal interaction with Vice President Kamala Harris, but she, too, deserves to be seen as a human being and not a mere political punching bag.
We’re in the final stretch of what is sure to be the most contentious election in modern history. Rather than feed into the insanity and destructive narratives that cause us to demean one candidate or the other, let’s challenge ourselves to pray for Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris, focus on policy perspectives, and resist the urge to allow anger, panic or fear to drive us to a place of dehumanization.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” He is the author of four books.
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