The other side of Donnie

All eyes were on my social media platforms last week when it emerged that it was I, Ruth Powell, who was the mystery, long-standing, close friend and advisor of Donald Trump, President-elect of the United States of America.  When the details of our close intimate friendship were leaked to the public, I had to leave my apartment in Dublin and hide out in a B&B in Kilkenny.  Friends, family and people I have never met said that they were “outraged”, “shocked”, “numb” and “in pieces” when they heard about the relationship.  Only one woman from Donegal commented that she felt “peaceful”.  Of course, it later came-out that she was actually responding to a posting of mine on the ancient Japanese art of Shirin Yoko, or forest breathing; so she re-posted her comment again with the words “peaceful, my arse!” just to clear things up.

Many couldn’t believe, that I, Ruth Powell, long term development worker, teacher and friend of the oppressed, could have been hiding my relationship with a man that so many feel contempt for.  Well let me just say a few things from my point of view and dispel many of the evil myths and lies that have been circulating around this story once and for all.

Let me just tell you all about the other side of Donnie.

I met Donald Trump in the autumn of 2006, that part is true.  But we certainly did not meet at a Halloween themed party at the Playboy Mansion.  I’ve never even been to California.  No, Donnie contacted me when I was working as a VSO volunteer in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and he asked me if he could join me for a couple of weeks, a month maximum, as he had an interest in working with people from less fortunate positions than his own.  I was surprised at first, but over a few emails I heard a real longing from a lost soul, and I thought, “heck, why not invite him over for a few weeks, how bad can it be?”

Well let me just say this once, he did not stay in my apartment near the wrestling palace, as has been stated in media!  No sir.  Donnie didn’t want to live in an apartment in town so he chose to live in a traditional Mongolian ger, ten kilometres from the city centre.  He spent his days playing with the children from a local orphanage, working with the local women’s farmer’s association, delivering training sessions to the LGBTQ working group and teaching the homeless how to read and write.  I would visit Donnie in the evenings, and I never saw such dedication to the eradication of inequality.  The man was a beast.  He would stay up all night learning the Mongolian language and practising his throat singing ability, and whenever we finished our dinner, he would take out the left overs and give them to the street children.  He was unstoppable, dynamic, passionate and inspiring.

After a month he went back to the States, but not until he set up a fund for women from vulnerable backgrounds to set-up their own small businesses.  He also established a library in the university, and presented cheques to local NGOs.  When I asked if I could take a photo of all this great work, he simply said “no Ruth, let’s keep this quiet”.  When he returned to New York he sent me a wonderful thank you letter, in which he quoted Shakespeare and Chaucer, and finished it with an elegant haiku.

We stayed in touch after that and yes, it’s true that he has asked my advice on a number of occasions.  It was I, Ruth Powell, who suggested he run for President and yes, I was asked for my opinion on his hair-style, clothes, wives and political policies.  But we never actually again met in public, simply via email and Facebook and he sometimes tweets me.

Late at night, he sometimes tweets me.

When the story of our decade long friendship broke there were such vicious undertones that I simply had to respond.  Many call Trump a callous, manipulative sociopathic-megalomaniac , but those people never did see him playing barefoot, with the children, under the constant blue Mongolian sky.  Those people never saw him laughing and they simply don’t know Donnie like I know Donnie, and it’s those people that I feel sorry for.  Those people indeed!