Welcome to Trump’s fantasy life, where Carla Bruni lusts after him
Only a very bad novelist could have invented Donald Trump. His character seems to have no connection to reality. Trump: An American Dream (C4), an engrossing four-part biography, reveals how often The Donald’s ambitions and self-image have seemed completely delusional to everyone but himself.
His humungous debts, his toxic divorces — he could face the Press and insist these problems simply didn’t exist. One journalist called him, ‘the greatest con artist in the history of the world’. Trump probably took it as a compliment.
The truly extraordinary thing about the man, so weird it’s almost mystical, is how often he defies reality — only for reality to say: ‘OK, have it your own way.’
How else could a former reality TV game show host with no political experience wake up one day as President of the United States?
This series is the first serious attempt on British TV to answer that question. Edited down from thousands of hours of interviews and news footage, it has an ear for the incriminating quote ... many of them uttered by The Donald himself.
The third episode focused on his divorces in the nineties from first wife Ivana Trump and spouse no 2, ex- mistress Marla Maples. In the UK we were largely spared the frenetic media coverage, but for Americans it was a bigger soap opera than Dallas and Dynasty combined.
TV host and professional ego Geraldo Rivera described the split from Ivana as ‘divorce gone nuclear’. After months of denying that anything was wrong in his marriage, despite stories of a catfight on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado, between Ivana and Marla, Trump announced his reason for the break-up.
‘I don’t want to sleep with a woman who has had children,’ he said.
Even more breathtaking, he rang a journalist and claimed to be a Trump press officer called ‘ John Miller’. Apparently unaware that his voice was instantly recognisable, ‘Miller’ started boasting about Trump’s sexual conquests.
Madonna wanted to date him, ‘Miller’ said, and so did model Carla Bruni: ‘ She dropped Mick Jagger for Donald.’
Afraid she was hallucinating, the reporter had to play back the tape for the whole newsroom, to convince herself it really was Trump on the line.
So far, the series has failed to get to grips completely with Trump’s finances. They’re just mind-boggling.
He built the world’s biggest casino, Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal, but let it slide into bankruptcy, owing millions in construction costs. Faced with foreclosure, he borrowed to the hilt — knowing the banks could not write off his $100 m debt. As one columnist said: ‘He learned he could ultimately get away with anything.’
This documentary is a valiant attempt to make sense of it all.
Making sense of the pell-mell Love, Lies And Records (BBC1) is nearly impossible, too. There’s bereavement, transgender politics, an immigration scam, homophobia, infidelity, marital bust-ups and a runaway teenager . . . all before lunchtime.
By the end of the day, we’d had murder, a gay wedding and mass resignations, too. This isn’t a story, it’s a blizzard.
Rebecca Front is marvellous as the bitter supervisor, passed over for promotion. She’s still threatening to go public with the CCTV footage of her rival, Kate (Ashley Jensen), having sex with a colleague in the storeroom at the Christmas party.
The crises pass in such a blur that it’s hard to care too much about them. But if you allow yourself to be deluged with drama, it’s an entertaining hour.