Trump Card
d’souza media“I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke." Thus spoke the President of the United States and leader of the free world, his rise to power documented in yet another documentary from Dinesh D’Souza. Trump Card will fit right into the filmography of D’Souza, who brought us Death of a Nation, a film where parallels between President Trump and former President Abraham Lincoln are drawn up. His work here looks to expose the socialism corrupting the minds of the Democrats. Good documentaries are balanced, thoughtful and have an angle of discussion that will lead to further debate and discourse outside of the film. Trump Card has none of that.
D’Souza’s smug, self-congratulatory circle jerk would be a fascinating watch if it weren't so embarrassing. A flimsy link is attempted between socialism and the Deep State – whatever that is. Spending more time tonguing the tanned anus of the President than he does discussing or dissecting relevant ideas, D’Souza’s documentary is unsurprisingly poor. A lack of basic historical knowledge, wild claims and brainwashed messages of America being the greatest country in the world, it’s a laughable, sad case of whataboutisms and historical anomalies. Make no mistake about what Trump Card really is: poorly made propaganda. It’s worse than that, though, it’s lazy too. Poor CGI, a checklist of Americanisms to include, it’s cringe-inducing to watch. D’Souza’s claims, from the asinine comparison of socialism and coronavirus to unfounded assertations on conspiracy theories that do nothing more than slander opponents and cause debate to bubble into insults rather than information, are dangerous.
Attempting to tap into the patriotism of America and fuelling the fire of a modern-day civil war, D’Souza can’t stop himself from featuring Abraham Lincoln once more. Perhaps he had some costumes from the prop department left over. D’Souza makes sweeping, blanket statements to appease his following, without giving much thought to what his words actually mean. His lack of understanding of anything that isn’t fed to him by Republicans is startling; a black and white look at multi-faceted political ideologies becomes annoyingly dense, rather than startlingly provocative. Former President Barack Obama bought a beach house, so this means Climate Change is a hoax. That is a genuine argument made by Trump Card – take from that what you will.
It’s difficult to take D’Souza seriously, especially when Trump Card boils down to becoming a puff piece to promote his book. The documentary is based on his book, after all. From recounting his “first-hand” experiences with the Deep State to weird skits and reimagining's of his calls with POTUS and the days he spent in prison after his trial. Tinfoil hat wearing nonsense, a documentary made in the hopes of pandering to a fringe group, allowing them to double down on inarticulate ideas, conspiracy and subterfuge. It’s out of touch, poorly made on a technical level, and blind to the issues America faces. Trump Card fails both as a documentary and as a disinformation piece.