Trump’s stunning rise chronicled for all to see
PARK CITY, UTAH— The “deplorables” were hiding in plain sight, waiting to vote for Donald Trump.
It may seem obvious today that the new U.S. president had a serious fan base, following his upset win last November over Hillary Clinton. She had dismissed Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” not to be taken seriously. Clinton was wrong, but so were a lot of other people.
As demonstrated by the new documentary TRUMPED: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time, which has its world premiere Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in advance of a Feb. 3 broadcast in the U.S. and on CraveTV, very few people realized the extent of Trump’s support — although he really did seem to believe in himself.
Those most caught unaware, it seems, were members of the mainstream media, whom Trump loves to hate, and the so-called political experts. John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairperson, is seen early on the morning of election day on Nov. 8, telling the press a Trump victory is highly unlikely: “I’m standing here tonight and I really don’t think it’s going to happen.” But it did, and TRUMPED shows why, although it’s often more inferred than obvious. Drawing from thousands of hours of campaign footage logged by Showtime’s political program The Circus, which followed Donald J. Trump from the moment the New York business mogul and reality TV star announced his unlikely presidential bid in June 2015 to his unexpected triumph last November, the film tracks how Trump steadily overcame all challengers and attracted new supporters.
The Circus co-hosts Mark Halperin, John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon, all veteran political watchers, look constantly amazed as they watch Trump overcome his main Republican rivals Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and later his Democratic opponent Clinton.
The film doesn’t quite live up to its title. There’s little insider stuff here, apart from conventional wisdom being constantly upturned about Trump’s chances. There’s no smoking-gun footage of Vladimir Putin stuffing a ballot box or hacking a Democratic computer. Not much is seen of Clinton or her campaign, either. But TRUMPED does tick off all the major events of the presidential campaign, including the October surprise of the “pussygate” videotape of Trump’s vulgar boasts about how he preys upon women, which many wrongly assumed would sink his campaign.
What the film shows, more than anything and completely obvious in retrospect, is how Americans were hungry for real change. They were willing to overlook almost any character flaw about Trump because they knew him and believed he would create more jobs and greater domestic security.
The eyes had it for Trump — you can see how people light up whenever he enters a room or stadium, unlike the polite response shown the other Republican candidates. Clinton’s crowds seemed to be somewhere in the middle.
Aboard his private jet, Trump in mid-campaign offers the characteristically immodest insight that being on TV with The Apprentice made him look to Americans that he was someone they could trust, even if he was constantly firing people on the show.
“They know me,” Trump says. “They’ve known me a long time. I grew up with the American people.”
He’s right. Later in the movie, a woman in her 20s echoes Trump’s comment.
“I grew up with The Apprentice,” she says. “That’s when he had me.”
Could it all really have been as simple as that? Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic.