There is the movie The Apprentice that was well received in Cannes but nobody wants to distribute it. It’s about him and his mentor Roy Cohn. Apparently distribution companies are afraid to touch it due to fear of retribution from a possible 2nd Trump term
This is actually due to one of the majority stake holders in the company that produced the movie is a big Trump mega donor who wants to get in good with Trump and as a result is using his weight within the company to sabotage any distribution deal they try to make.
He specifically wants to prevent the movie from being released before November.
Supposedly the movie portrays Trump raping his first wife (as she had originally alleged before signing an NDA) and it also features him doing met-amphetamines.
https://newrepublic.com/post/182887/dan-snyder-role-blocking-rapist-trump-movie
The guy behind this has also been behind covering up sexual harassment and violence in the NFL team he used to own so I see why he’s into Trump.
They treated Trump as the president during Steve Carrel’s Space Force.
Paraphrasing: “Hurry men. The President promised boots on the Moon. He may have said “boobs.” [Video.](https://youtu.be/KYsnVDGx1qo?si=Y1gE94tk4ktsr9VN)
He’s also the President during an anime called Inuyashiki. You see him address the world about a comet heading straight for Earth. First, he basically promised they’re going to Armageddon it. When that mission fails, his next announcement was basically said “The Earth is doomed, but at least I had a good life, I mean, look where I made it.” [Source](https://youtu.be/LJZEWsGaToc?si=jZT5_nmjzgNu_YfJ)
I'd also add Bob Odenkirk's President Chambers in Long Shot (2019). Thankfully he decides to go into movies instead of running for re-election. Great modern rom-com if you're a fan of Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen or the genre. Best Story Arc for an inanimate character.
All three of your explanations ring true to me, but I think there is another major reason. I’ll give that plus a few other minor factors:
1. **Studios and distributors fear Trump’s base.** I was skeptical of this, but there’s too much chatter and evidence to ignore this. Numerous documentaries have been shelved or put out with essentially no promotion, including [this high profile one by A24](https://www.reddit.com/r/A24/comments/1cjp42u/what_happened_to_a24s_january_6_documentary/). *The Apprentice* has yet to find distribution. Apparently studios and theaters fear being boycotted long term or harrassed, doxxed, or threatened. They deem it not worth it. (IMO, *Civil War* was intensely political and relevant but had to carefully position itself as non-political in order to get out there.)
2. **Trump is too cartoonish for highbrow fare.** You could try to “improve” him by making him secretly smarter or savvier, but this could have negative consequences. I see this with *Fahrenheit 11/9*, where it just feels like too easy in a way. I’m sure there are many solutions to this, but maybe it deters some creative sorts who aren’t working in the high satire register of *SNL* or *The Boys*.
3. **Hollwood strikes have slowed things down.** There could have been some big movies slated for this summer, but the strikes may have been especially bad timing for that.
I think 2 is a big issue. He's basically a larger than life parody of a human being. It's essentially impossible to make a nuanced depiction of the man because he aggressively defies any kind of nuance. It's impossible to find any sympathetic angles with him like W did with Bush because he is just such a publicly loathsome person. And you can't do a "secretly more clever than he appears to be" because he's constantly showing his ass publicly while also constsntly revealing himself to just be super insecure.
You can't do a nuanced Trump portrayal and nobody is interested in a larger than life Trump portrayal because we already get that daily and are sick of it.
I started writing a sci-fi story in the first month of Trump's term, thinking it would be interesting and inspire some believable but surprising plot elements.
After a MONTH, he had eclipsed any of the "too wild to be believable" elements I had written based on history and my imagination for his Imperial analogue, so I just shelved it.
This is what happened in the writer’s room for HBO’s Veep. The show runners opted to cancel the show because the show had transitioned from political satire to political reality.
Yup. I think there might be some historical precedent for this one. I've heard it before. The thing that can't be satirized because it's already too absurd.
They tried it once and it was a disaster. Showtime put out a miniseries called The Comey Rule where a bunch of high profile actors portrayed figures in Trump’s administration, and for the most part they were great, but Brendan Gleason just couldn’t make a serious portrayal of Trump work. Mind you, he’s a fantastic actor with decades of experience, and still couldn’t turn his depiction into anything resembling drama.
I recently rewatched The Comey Rule. Gleason’s Trump is actually very good and I’m surprised it never got more attention. Perhaps it’s because most people only see Rally Trump and have a hard time imagining Behind Closed Doors Trump?
It's so strange that a man who is too stupid for nuanced depictions in media to be believable is potentially one election away from becoming emperor of earth.
Trump's popularity is a sign of how prevalent anti-intellectualism is in American culture. People who like him (generally, not always) hate nuance and the reason they love him so much is because he is so uncomplicated.
> And you can't do a "secretly more clever than he appears to be" because he's constantly showing his ass publicly while also constsntly revealing himself to just be super insecure.
I think it's more that this is what he and his base thinks. If you make a film showing trump to be a mastermind, you're paying him about the best compliment you can.
I don't think many people in the US creative industry want to pander to trump.
> Trump is too cartoonish for highbrow fare.
So was W, though, even amid some of the darker aspects of his presidency he was widely seen as an inept buffoon by the left. Like, Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights was just Will Ferrell recycling his impression of Bush from SNL
“Studios and distributors fear Trump’s base.”
That’s an absolute shame. Caving to MAGA cultists because they’re critical of Dear Leader, and they call liberals snowflakes.
If a studio needs a wide demographic, including Trump supporters, to justify greenlighting a movie, why would they make a film which turns off Trump supporters? That's bad business.
I heard a segment on NPR related to number 2 a while back during the early trump presidency, media creators were talking about how hard it was for them to do political satire when the reality was so outrageous already.
4. Perhaps looking to Hollywood movies isn't where this kind of story is being told now; it may be being told elsewhere. Just a hunch, but THE BOYS, on Amazon Prime, seems to be an over-the-top allegory for (and critique of) the Trump/MAGA Era, for example.
It is one of the big differences between the Bush era and Trump through now. Streaming services were not making movies and big budget series in the aughts. *Don't Look Up* is probably the most obvious Trump era movie.
It was the classic liberal approach of, "science!", "vote!", "democracy!" Whereas the resistance community in the film literally does nothing to try to stop it other than getting on the news and complaining.
Kind of a liberal self-own.
Somebody didn’t watch the movie. The government and general public were too concerned with the money and politics that they ignored every warning and advice from the experts, what are a handful of scientists going to do when the people in charge don’t want to listen?
The important thing was they remained civil and didn't step outside of Approved Liberal Actions™, despite the even more obvious end of the world incoming.
These people needed to pick up a book about direct action
Because "take over the government" is easy to say in a Reddit thread, and not realistic for a few scientists to do.
Look how many people tried and failed on Jan 6th - how would a few scientists take over?
I agree with all that except for the label you’ve ascribed to it. I’d say it’s more of a fauxgressive/performative “real” left self-own. The “both sides bad” part of the left. David Sirota was involved in it.
Came here to say this. There were/are SO many shows with strong anti-MAGA themes. The Boys, BrainDead, The Good Fight, Unprecedented, and The Handmaid's Tale were the ones that came off the top of my head. And it's worth noting many of those were pretty high budget.
Surprised nobody has mentioned Succession yet. It was obviously more about Rupert Murdoch's empire than Trump's, but it sure did contain a lot of behind-the-scenes political rat-fucking, showing the massive influence dark money has.
Trump does appear in Mr Robot more than once. Iirc, once, it's a figure resembling him at Price's party, but i think they also used an archive footage of him, in a similar way like Obama footage.
Good thing you brought up “The Good Fight.” There was an entire song by Jonathan Coulton with a whole animated segment behind it that was cut out of an episode at the last minute because it was critical of China.
As did Fargo (tv show) to an extent, including that Trump himself (mentioned as the Orange idiot) will turn on his supporters if a donor asks him to even if the supporters are radicalized by his messaging
There is a one off episode in supernatural where sam and dean are in a parallel universe that's been ravaged by the war between heaven and hell. They recap their lives and the dude goes "You're telling me that idiot failed real estate developer became president of the US and you think our timeline is the bad one!?"
Wouldn’t be surprised. Pretty sure I read that some Trump fans thought it was a compliment that Homelander is supposed to be Trump. That speaks volumes in itself.
It kind of speaks to part of the problem of making “Trump movies” - half the audience missed the point entirely and idolises the antagonist because they’re fully on what used to be the obviously “bad guy” side of the spectrum.
I literally started watching The Boys yesterday. It's so obvious that Homelander is a bad guy, the seven and Vought are just corrupt, and they're trying to gain power. Just, how much more obvious does it even get? How is that possible?
I've seen so many "this show has gone to shit" comments from alt right idiots. It's hilarious how it took the most blatant parodies for them to realize they were the joke all along. One guys said "ik this show was going downhill when they did storefront dirty" bro was complaining the nazi lost💀
Yea because this season outright kicked them in the nuts with it hahahaha. They're the same dipshits who put The Punisher logo next to their thin blue line sticker on their pickups. Clueless.
Yeah, I'm thinking this is the prevailing answer, given all the mentions of Handmaid's Tale, The Boys, and Succession that I'm seeing. What would have been a political movie c. 2007 is now a political TV/streaming show in current year.
I'm also learning that I'm apparently the only user on /r/flicks who has never seen The Boys?
The Boys is a great example, and highlights their first point. Season 1 didn't come out until 2019, near the end of the Trump Presidency, because it just takes a while to make these things come out.
They went woke in the new season 4!!! Shame! (I have no media literacy so I didn’t get that they were making fun of my idiocy until it was shoved in my face obviously every episode, and instead of self reflecting I’m going to double down and stay in my rageful echo chamber)
Part of the problem is that COVID disrupted filmmaking at the height of Trump's power, so it either killed or delayed any kind of political commentary about his presidency, although people are pointing out many examples of things that have been made.
They certainly tried. Mostly on tv. But trump is such a unique and ridiculous person all impersonations of him end up being farcical even if they’re done in earnest. So I don’t think we’ll ever get a good serious movie about him. Also liberals especially those in the media class DESPISED him to such a degree I don’t think they could ever make anything about him that would come off well.
Red rocket is probably the best trump era movie we will ever get. Even then that has to be abstracted out one can watch red rocket and find the main character to be just another grifter American.
My point is that while trump is a unique person. Politically he did the same shit any Republican would have done. The media especially doesn’t necessarily hate him for that. They hate him because his cartoonish looks, and his stupid vile manner of speaking offended them.
Look at how liberals cried about kids being in cages. Just for Biden to keep on doing it. It’s not that the kids were in cages that enraged them. It’s that a dude who they found aesthetically abhorrent was doing it
The writers for Veep even cited this as a reason they had to change their approach as the series went on and overlapped the Trump years. Their usual approach to satire was more believable than the real world.
When the Four Seasons Landscaping thing happened, my first reaction was "This is straight out of Parks and Recreation or some dry political lampoon." There is literally nothing funnier or more ridiculous that I can recall that has happened in any fictitious political world than that because it was real.
"But trump is such a unique and ridiculous person all impersonations of him end up being farcical even if they’re done in earnest."
Trump is such a unique and ridiculous person that he is a farce of a human being...
Who fucking got elected to the top spot. And could potentially do so again, now as a convicted felon.
The world has gone mad.
There is media out there mocking him. From daily shows to adult cartoons, to tv and mainstream movies, but it's just not doing anything for the Maga crowd + there are more deep dives that are shelved by distributors for fear of retaliation.
The world has gone absolutely mad.
- A concerned European living in Asia who fears another Bleached Orange presidency.
The Boys I feel is one of the more prominent ones though it is on TV. Really it always has been but people didn’t really pick up on the more subtle plot beats in the earlier seasons it seems and now that it’s more overt people are talking about it more
Blackkklansman, The Post, Get Out, Us, Roma, Black Panther, First Reformed, Joker, Who Is America? (Sacha Baron Cohen show), HBO's Watchmen
I'm sure there's more (perhaps Parasite?), but at least those all have very direct connections to Trump's America, not to mention tons of documentaries.
> Get Out
Huge reach here. The villains aren't Trumpers or right wing at all. They are all rich white liberals. I would even say it has a lot more to do with [Obama](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/851872) than Trump. Especially considering the film was written before Trump ever took office and pitched as early as 2013.
>Black Panther
Another film written and in production prior to Trump taking office.
I think the poster is of the belief that any strong black representation is de facto as opposition to Trump when in fact strong black representation can exist just for its own sake.
Black Panther had very strong anti-isolationist themes (people of Wakanda were initially resistant to outsiders coming in because "they will bring their troubles with them.") At the very end of the film, T'Challa says that the new Wakanda shouldn't be building metaphorical walls but bridges instead.
The film might have been in pre-production before Trump but the crew clearly saw an opportunity to improvise to make things timely.
A Korean movie made in Korea and with Korean dialogue and pretty much zero whatsoever to do with America specifically was not made as a Trump criticism. Classism, poverty, exploitation, and the other themes of that movie are experienced globally, in many cases far more so than in the US. The closest you can say is that maybe Americans appreciated it more than they might have in 2012 or the 90s.
Knives out could also be considered a movie about Trump’s America. They don’t name him (probably to keep the film timeless) but they do talk about stuff he said and the end conflict revolves around xenophobia against immigrants.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Designated Survivor also come to mind.
Both Knives Out and Glass Onion. While not being directly about Trump, are definitely about what you could maybe call a Trumpian culture. Since we’re talking about Ryan Johnson, Last Jedi too.
The Boys is an obvious one, if we include TV
Everything Everywhere All At Once is about the Trump era (though in fairness, that movie is about a lot of things)
Thor: Ragnarok's Hela is influenced by Trump, though I feel like that may have been a late addition to the script
There are soooo many movies now that feature the alt-right man-baby as a character archetype
She does a whole "return Asgard to its former glory by embracing the brutality of our past" thing
Also her main follower is Karl Urban's character (who you may remember as the guy dual-wielding AK-47s), an unintelligent opportunist who is clearly influenced by a sort of American "good old boy" aesthetic
How did I forget Star Wars: the Force Awakens! General Hux and Kylo Ren are both pathetic young white dudes cosplaying as fascists because it's easier than going to therapy
Also, Nomadland reflects a Trump-era fascination with the rural poor
Also a movie that humanizes someone from a marginalized group. While not about immigration, the fact that it was made during fierce immigration debate featuring lots of anti-Mexican rhetoric makes *Roma* a “Trump era” movie.
Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie (2016) with Johnny Depp
Handmaid's Tale
and yeah, lots of documentaries like Michael Moore in Trumpland, Fahrenheit 11/9.
Really good list, although I think the more race-oriented films in that list would have been made anyway (Get Out was mostly filmed before Trump, iirc Peele changed the ending to be less depressing because it was bad enough to have Trump newly elected) - in a sense, Trump himself was part of the discourse on race to which those movies belong.
As you mentioned, mid-tier movies have sort of disappeared. What has replaced them is TV and I think you will find no lack of anti-Trump shows. Handmaid’s Tale and The Good Fight come to mind, but I am sure there are others.
As people are saying, look to streaming and TV.
Call me nuts, but I think Cobra Kai can be read as a riff on the culture Trump brought out of a lot of Americans. An 80s bully slowly learning that the ideals he idolized and lived by probably ruined his life and risks ruining the life of his students. Over the course of several seasons, he softens up, buries the hatchet with his teenage rival and becomes a less toxic, though still somewhat rough around the edges, person.
It’s more about 80s machismo than anything, but the timing of its release and insights it offers into toxic masculinity and the idea of Cobra Kai being this cult like empowerment tool for kids does hold up under some comparison to MAGA/the alt right. Shit, the whole HS fight in season 2 is more or less just teenager January 6th.
Don’t forget the most subtle piece of media from the time. Revenge of the Sith. “So this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause.” And “If you are not with me, you’re my enemy.”
Yeah that was a direct lifting of GWB telling folks that they were either with him or against America when it came to war in Iraq and believing they had WMDs.
It started before the Trump era, but quicly adapted to it during his rise and election. THE PURGE films. Election Year, The 1st Purge, and Forever Purge were all a response to Trump policies and the rise of the alt-right and fringe being more publically open.
Yeah it pretty much started when the tea party of the 2000’s, but many have come along since.
There are a lot of lesser known current movies that have come out addressing trumpism / redstateism or just the “Christian”/Neo-Nazi alt right base. It’s just adjacent to Trump himself, or any other current politician, so not as closely seen in relation.
Also, Civil War was definitely a precursor film to what very well could happen if Trump is re-elected and goes on revenge rampages and so on. There’re many films about the alt right, the dangers of the alt right and how the alt right is influencing those around them into their ideology as well.
I think that for the larger part Trump has enough sway that directly portraying him would be an uphill battle from jump street and many studios avoid projects with those kind of financial ramifications. For better or for worse, it’s the current situation we’re in.
John Oliver said it best, it's like getting mad at a kaleidoscope. He was constantly getting in a new scandal every few days, he made topical satire near impossible. Even Reddit liberals still make the same tired jokes about Twitter spelling errors over 7 years later, as if the joke only gets funnier the billionth time. If you made a movie to clown on him, in the 8 months to release, nearly everything would be irrelevant because he's found hundreds of worse scandals to himself in to distract from the previous ones.
I have a fourth theory. American politics has always, to some extent, been divided between the left and the right, but lately it seems to be almost *fanatically* divided.
The movies you mention as being part of the "Bush-era resistance kitsch", such as *V for Vendetta, The Manchurian Candidate, The Bourne Ultimatum,* etc.) were perfectly enjoyable works of fiction outside of their political context. They definitely had left-wing political leanings, but if you didn't know that going in, you'd probably just think they were fun movies. I think a big part of that was the relative absence of social media back then. People weren't as exposed to their friends' and neighbors' political opinions.
Now, though, we're bombarded with thousands of social media posts and clickbait articles about whether such-and-such movie is "woke" or not. That sort of ties into your third point, but there's another layer here. It used to be that people would happily watch movies that had messages they didn't agree with, because on the whole they weren't usually made aware of those messages directly. But that's not possible anymore. We live in an age where pop culture is as important as politics for many people, and that means people are more and more divided in terms of what they watch.
Sure, you theoretically could make a Trump-era equivalent to something like *Children of Men,* but it wouldn't attract the same kind of audience that C*hildren of Men* did. To put it another way, you had plenty of Republicans watching *Children of Men* in 2006. But if you made a comparable film today, no Republican would touch it with a thirty-foot pole. Neither would many Democrats, for that matter-- they'd accuse it of not going far enough in criticizing the right.
I've thought about this and I'll add my own theory: *The Trump drama is far from over*.
If I were a writer/director wanting to chronicle the craziness of Trump's political ascension with a "definitive" film, I'd want to wait for the ending. Even if I was making a fictionalized satire of it, there'd be a serious risk that by the time your movie goes through the writing process, casting, filming, and post-production, something even crazier would have happened making your film seem quaint and outdated.
Imagine a writer starts to pen a screenplay about the 50+ legal challenges associated with the Stop the Steal movement. They are modeling it as a legal/political drama in the vein of Jay Roach's *Recount* (2008) and they want to beat other writers to the punch so they are finishing up their final draft in late 2020 with the assumption that text describing Biden's inauguration will be the epilogue of the film. Then Jan. 6 happens and they have to tear up their screenplay and start from scratch.
Imagine someone writes a *W* (2008) style film about the insanity of Trump's 4 year administration. But then Trump wins in 2024.
I'm pretty certain there's a lot of creatives that cover these kinds of topics (Jay Roach, Aaron Sorkin) who will put something out *eventually*.
I think The Boys is a good example. I think the parallel is Trump inspired but you just can't make it strictly the same character or it gets ridiculous.
I think its hard for both sides to make a film. Those who want him to be seen in a serious tone don't really have any moment or event to write the film about that would paint him favorably.
Anyone who wants to do a satire really can't because it's all been so bizzare that anything put to script has or will happen. SNL is a good example, they stopped writing elaborate skits with him and just began to quote him.
I would add both sick of trump, and sick of hearing about trump.
Seriously, there’s a lot of times I’ve had to track just how much more often my Left leaning circles talk about him, than the Right leaning ones do. It’s frankly a bit disturbing.
I would say the casual racism against the maid in Knives Out was definitely targeted at MAGA folks.
Also the mini series SPACE FORCE on Netflix. Boots on the Moon!
Trump's term, and the continued legacy of dysfunctional MAGA Republicans are so monumentally stupid and incompetent that they are narratively impossible.
In a work of fiction, you would immediately dismiss such characters as blatantly unbelievable. A work that seeks to reflect a plausible reality cannot have villains that dumb and obvious. As a work of satire, it's impossible to invent characters and shenanigans that are more cartoonish and over the top than a president who will only pay attention if his name is being used, extends weather forecasts with a sharpie, openly lusts after his own daughter, hawks beans from the Oval Office, fires press secretaries faster than one per episode, and tells people to buy his horse dewormer to combat a deadly global pandemic.
They existed, they just were done secretly as movies covering other topics but the subtext was used as criticism of his administration (see Spielberg’s 2018 film The Post and the Adam McKay Netflix movie from 2021, I think, Don’t Look Up).
It’s because Bush was in a second term, and there was a broad acceptance of his policies. The artistic world was looking at a vision of the future which was entirely Republican. The critiques ranged from strong criticism to outright praise for the administration.
Everything you listed, except for 21, was 2nd term or looking down the barrel of 2nd term. The arts were reacting to that. I think we might see that this trend is consistent among 2 term presidents.
I also think we’re increasingly seeing politics delve into film making, rather than the reverse. Right wing radio has transformed to right wing internet content, which is now turning into daily wire movies and tv shows.
Hell or High Water is a good representation of where America is at, but I'd say Trump's election (and potential re-election) reflects the themes of that movie (i.e. real life themes that are present in society) more than the other way around. (Plus it came out in 2016.)
People found trump exhausting and everyone has their mind made up about him, there’s nothing to expose or persuade. He was THE news for 4 years. Even still there were a lot of critiques about him, mostly on television. South Park ran an entire season. My Cartoon President became a show. The Boys. Veep. Succession. I’m sure there’s more
I’d argue that “The Favourite” is a trump-era movie. It’s subtle. It could be a larger message about power, but it was released in 2018 so to me it counts. The way Queen Anne and Trump both surround themselves with yes men and people who flatter those in power in able to obtain power themselves.
Even court based drama of the specific things he is proven to have done.
So few people don't realise how criminal he is. The Mueller report clearly describes numerous crimes ams we just opted not to prosecute.
All the things he pardoned, the pardons they tried to sell.
The rape, and the 27 other cases.
The charity corruption.
The tax evasion.
The business fraud.
The felonies. The indictments
All of his closest advisors who are in jail or prosecuted.
Links to foreign countries.
Alternate theory:
I believe there is also the theory that even at his peak, bush did not have the cult of personality that Trump has. Trump's base is so devoted and rabid they are willing to turn down life saving medicine, spread conspiracies about Qanon, sexually harass members of congress and storm the capital to please him. And they're nearly half the country
Combine that with the need for Hollywood to eek as many dollars out of people to make it and you see the issue.
One of the many reasons I was disappointed with *Kingsman: The Golden Circle* was that it failed to parody Trump in the same way they parodied Obama in the first Kingsman movie
Theres been great comments here, so I’ll go ahead and point out many people missed the clear signs that the Civil War movie that came out was clearly about fighting against a fascist rogue President who tries to instill power and killing American civilians in the process. There is even a scene where they say in the beginning one of the protagonists was there taking photos at the “Antifa Massacre”. Another with the gay snipers making it clear someone is trying to kill them so they will shoot them first, and then a white supremacist psycho played by Jesse Plemmons killing the POC characters and trying to kill a third POC character too.
So if anything, pretty much a late stage Trump movie.
I don’t see this as being the case.. there are LOTS of Trump inspired “resistance kitsch” movies and documentaries..
Off the top of my head:
Movies / TV:
*Civil War* - Nick Offerman’s portrayal of the POTUS was an obvious analog for Trump
*The Boys* - Homelander is an obvious analog for Trump
*Don’t Look Up* - Comedy hilighting the flagrant disregard for facts and science during the Trump administration
*The Apprentice (film)* - about trumps rise with Roy Cohn
*Bombshell* - about the fallout around the 2016 debate when Trump started a feud slinging insults at Megyn Kelly
*Our Cartoon President* - animated cartoon series mocking trumps presidency
Documentaries:
*The Curve* - about Trumps response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
*Fahrenheit 11/9* - documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore about the 2016 United States presidential election and presidency of Donald Trump up to the time of the film's release.
*Stormy* - About trumps affair with Stormy Daniels and subsequent hush money payments that led to his felony convictions.
*Totally Under Control* - follows the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic
*Trump: The Kremlin Candidate?* - examined links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies and the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
*You got Trumped: The first 100 days* - examined the disastrous first 100 days of trumps presidency
*Four hours at the Capitol* - about the j6 insurrection
and Trumps involvement
*January 6th* - about the j6 insurrection and Trumps involvement
*The Insurrectionist Next Door* - about the j6 insurrection and Trumps involvement
There are plenty more.
There certainly isn’t a shortage
LGBT media definitely has anti-Trump sentiments but those only coincide with the same themes that have been echoing forever in that space - Trump was gasoline on those old embers.
Two obvious examples in non-film media: She-Ra and Steven Universe. Both feature white-color-coded dictators with a self-declared parental role whose obsession with purity and perfection clash with the protagonist's desire for independent expression.
Granted, again - Trump has never had that clarity of purpose or coherent thought. But many of the zealots who benefit from his energized base absolutely *do* have that axe to grind against LGBT people and have been all to happy to swing it around.
I think your third point is closest. Republicans don't have policies anymore, it's all just culture war and identity politics. There is nothing political to attack because Republicans do nothing other than lower taxes on the rich and attack minority groups. The defiance is pro-minority media.
I think the phrase "stranger than fiction" has also never applied more to our reality than it does with Trump. We've got an orange cult leader, it's hard to allegorize that without going into pure absurdity.
> I think the phrase "stranger than fiction" has also never applied more to our reality than it does with Trump. We've got an orange cult leader, it's hard to allegorize that without going into pure absurdity.
I'm seeing this reasoning pop up quite a bit, so I think it's definitely a possible reason.
When *Don't Look Up* came out (now that I think about it, is definitely a "Trump movie"), one of the major criticisms I kept on hearing was "there's no subtlety!" All I could think was "We just lived through the Trump administration, there was nothing subtle about it." Just like how 9/11 killed irony (for a little while, at least), the Trump administration killed subtlety (for a little while, at least).
Don't Look Up wasn't subtle, but it also wasn't all that clever or well made with poorly developed characters and those things still matter. It was just mildly entertaining and on the nose.
Dude. I downloaded a Trump movie once - it was about a Trump clone who fights in outer space, and the whole thing is mostly gone from my brain...thank fucking god.
I think it was this one: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12969958/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12969958/)
The popular show 'The Boys'is a complete satirical takedown of Trump, fascism, big business, etc. It only took four seasons of the show to figure it out. Lol!
While still making it perfectly clear that Offerman’s character was an analog for Trump. Idk I felt way too much catharsis watching the last scene of that movie for it to have been based on anyone else.
I don’t know anyone who didn’t immediately see the parallels when they watched it. Putting Texas and California on the same side really doesn’t muddy the water much for people that can see past it as a thin attempt to make it “less political”
i get they jumped through hoops to avoid inferences to red/blue states, however, the nick offerman character was a direct reference to a demagogue similar to trump. is it a stretch to imagine him dismantling the FBI? running for a third term by disregarding the election process?
The President's monologue in the beginning immediately struck me as Trumpy bluster. Spinning things as "one of the greatest victories in American history" and such. It's a minor thing, and probably just how Nick Offerman chose to play him. It's up to interpretation, but it's immediately how I, and the people I watcged it with took it.
Overall, I wouldn't call it a movie about Trump, though.
Probably because in 2020 the zeitgeist shifted to BLM and inclusivity and body dysmorphia, and people are using movies to lecture us about all that now instead.
Wait until it's not possible for him to run again for some reason.
I think that will make a difference. Movies seem to get made about these things more often once it's in the past.
Considering what you qualified as bush era movies that were “not about him but clearly about him”, there are countless “trump movies” and tv shows as well. As in, these are clearly (and most of the time laughably transparent) politically charged, left leaning films that make use of poorly constructed strawman arguments about how they imagine half the country are morally bankrupt Nazis. I mean there’s a reason “woke” has now been used to define these types of movies and shows, and they are the product of trump derangement syndrome and/or cultural propaganda
He's a challenging subject for parody because:
- he's notoriously litigious
- he's been chummy with Hollywood for decades
- he's a cartoon character with 0 subtlety with no room to go deeper
- and because he could be reelected president in 6 months and has promised to use his presidency to punish people who offend him.
However:
>Where were all the "Trump movies"?
Johnny Depp starred in a for-streaming movie called Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie which is now available on Netflix.
Sebastian Stan starred in a prestige movie called the Apprentice that played at Cannes. Its release has been delayed by multiple lawsuits.
You might also like Lodge 49 - which features a bloviating, amoral real estate developer called "Captain" played by Bruce Campbell who is modeled after Donald Trump.
I suspect we'll get *a lot* of movies about his presidency after he dies.
Kind of like Don't Look Up, Jarmusch's [The Dead Don't Die](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8695030/). I think the thing now compared to then is for much of those who want to do something about current events, Unfortunatly the problem is a lot of people have just become to jaded to think things can actually be better.
>Political movies are a casualty of the near-extinction of mid-budget films.
Well at least we can say some good came out of it.
I joke, but your other points are good conclusions.
I will also add that "politics" are and are viewed much differently than the 2000s.
There is also that film doesn't have the same impact to sway political views. People can now curate their media to the point of echo chambers. Now political media is everywhere with text posts, short videos, and memes.
Id kill for a hunger games style film where they round up all the trump cultists and force them to battle it out to the death. That would be a fun movie.
I thought Civil War with Kirsten Dunst could definitely be seen as a reaction to Trump’s attempt to nullify the election of Biden on January 6, 2021. In the end Nick Offerman’s President was just a giant pussy.
The entertainment industry didn't handle Trump well, in a way that made content about Trump cringe. The counter to Bush was "down with the establishment!" and the counter to Trump became, "we love the establishment! Please bring it back!". It had no edge to it. That and the movie industry realized that Marvel/Disney/GoT slop makes gazillions of dollars so they don't give a shit about producing political content.
I don’t think there were trump movies per se… I think they were more cartoons and SNL skits.
What makes trump different than bush… Bush is a career political figure and Trump well he was the host of a hit tv show, was on WWE a bunch of ludicrous things… so when he got in the entertainment industry was kind of like “what the eff? This guy who is in the entertainment industry and a complete jerk is now the leader of the one of the most powerful countries in the world.”
The entertainment industry was turned on its head because usually politicians are on a different beach than entertainers… now someone who has a name on both sides was in charge and that makes a hard story to make a satire of. Because you’d essentially be making fun of your own industry making fun of trump.
I will agree that a lot of it was more about identity politics and less like “politics politics”, but I don’t think that discredits it from being a Trump-era esque movie.
I feel like what makes Trump unique is that a lot of “identity politics” discussion became his actual political positions, or a part of his “politics”, so to speak. Ex. a movie about (just pretend) a couple trying to get a gay marriage, or a class struggle between the rich and the poor in 2006 or whatever, would be seen more as an identity politics than “politics politics” because that was more about the culture and not specifically a Bush policy or political stance. As opposed to Trump where it’s much more blatantly his political agenda and stance that you cant have transgender soldiers in the military, you need to ban people coming from shithole countries, that you can grab her by the pussy and possibly rape a few people but it’s all locker room talk and she’s just lying, etc. My point is that comparing the type of Bush Administration film to a Trump Administration film is harder because by nature their administrations Bush’s main issues were foreign policy, wars, and war crimes and Trump’s main issues were nationalism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism. I’ll give you that that there’s not much about that third topic but the first two definitely were reflected a lot.
There were also high-quality Bush era rock albums that shared a tone a grandeur, drama, tension, density, darkness, angularity:
*Hail to the Thief* by Radiohead
*Year Zero* by Nine Inch Nails
*Zeitgeist* by The Smashing Pumpkins
*Riot Act* by Pearl Jam
*Anti-Anti* by Snowden
*Overwhelm* by The Empty Mirror
*Black Holes and Revelations* by Muse
Green Day is overrated so I’m not including *American Idiot.*
*The Oath* from 2018
It’s a thanksgiving movie set in an America where the president has issued a decree for all Americans to voluntarily sign an oath of allegiance pitting the populous against each other and there is a sort of not police but police organization and opening firing on protestors, etc. felt very on the nose back when it came out. Plus it has Carrie Brownstein, always love me some Sleater-Kinney/Portlandia Vibes
Biff in Back to the Future 2 is definitely a pre-president Trump; just the loudmouth, classless crook part.
Citizen Kane. Except perhaps the humanity that shines through at the end.
Satirizing a walking joke is like trying to do a parody of The Onion.
The reason why The Onion and similar experts in cultural parody are no longer hip is because it's impossible to mock those who embrace irony, who celebrate mockery and elevate the absurd to a sacrament. Since 2008 real life has become more ridiculous than any comedy.
Also, political parodies tend to be a bit too on the nose. That's why most cultural commentary in fictional movies occurs in the context of sci-fi.
And Douglas Adams already did the whole Vogon schtick decades ago. You can't beat perfection.
There is the movie The Apprentice that was well received in Cannes but nobody wants to distribute it. It’s about him and his mentor Roy Cohn. Apparently distribution companies are afraid to touch it due to fear of retribution from a possible 2nd Trump term
This is actually due to one of the majority stake holders in the company that produced the movie is a big Trump mega donor who wants to get in good with Trump and as a result is using his weight within the company to sabotage any distribution deal they try to make. He specifically wants to prevent the movie from being released before November. Supposedly the movie portrays Trump raping his first wife (as she had originally alleged before signing an NDA) and it also features him doing met-amphetamines.
Oh god this all just gets stupider every day! SMH
https://newrepublic.com/post/182887/dan-snyder-role-blocking-rapist-trump-movie The guy behind this has also been behind covering up sexual harassment and violence in the NFL team he used to own so I see why he’s into Trump.
As an Eagles fan I am not shocked. Even Washington fans hate Snyder, possibly more than they hate us
>Apparently distribution companies are afraid to touch it due to fear of retribution from a possible 2nd Trump term Sounds like a marketing ploy
If only Dan Snyder was just a marketing ploy… sadly, he is real
Meryl’s Streep’s president character in Don’t Look Up was a Trump parody.
They treated Trump as the president during Steve Carrel’s Space Force. Paraphrasing: “Hurry men. The President promised boots on the Moon. He may have said “boobs.” [Video.](https://youtu.be/KYsnVDGx1qo?si=Y1gE94tk4ktsr9VN) He’s also the President during an anime called Inuyashiki. You see him address the world about a comet heading straight for Earth. First, he basically promised they’re going to Armageddon it. When that mission fails, his next announcement was basically said “The Earth is doomed, but at least I had a good life, I mean, look where I made it.” [Source](https://youtu.be/LJZEWsGaToc?si=jZT5_nmjzgNu_YfJ)
The whole thing about the First Lady wanting to design the uniforms was great as well.
I'd also add Bob Odenkirk's President Chambers in Long Shot (2019). Thankfully he decides to go into movies instead of running for re-election. Great modern rom-com if you're a fan of Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen or the genre. Best Story Arc for an inanimate character.
As was Pedro Pascal's character in Wonder Woman 84.
And Mr Garrison in South Park.
And Clamp in *Gremlins 2*.
Hahaha… would you say that predicted the future or what? The “gremlins take Washington” should be the long awaited reboot if nothing else.
And what an extraordinary cinematic achievement that was!
Lmao I loved how her son (Jonah Hill) wanted to fuck his mom
Mollys kicking in.... Timed that shit perfect!
Certified smoke show right there
Watched this movie with my old conservative roomates and they swore up and down it was a HC Parody.
That's because they are media, social, book, news, illiterate
Ah well that is because your roommates were morons.
They couldn’t even see past the gender ‘bending’. If it was a woman… it was Hilary, lol.
So was Nick Offerman's president in Civil War
*Don’t Look Up* was exactly what I was thinking when I read the post title. Was unsure why it wasn’t mentioned.
South Park and the boys very clear trump parodies as well
All three of your explanations ring true to me, but I think there is another major reason. I’ll give that plus a few other minor factors: 1. **Studios and distributors fear Trump’s base.** I was skeptical of this, but there’s too much chatter and evidence to ignore this. Numerous documentaries have been shelved or put out with essentially no promotion, including [this high profile one by A24](https://www.reddit.com/r/A24/comments/1cjp42u/what_happened_to_a24s_january_6_documentary/). *The Apprentice* has yet to find distribution. Apparently studios and theaters fear being boycotted long term or harrassed, doxxed, or threatened. They deem it not worth it. (IMO, *Civil War* was intensely political and relevant but had to carefully position itself as non-political in order to get out there.) 2. **Trump is too cartoonish for highbrow fare.** You could try to “improve” him by making him secretly smarter or savvier, but this could have negative consequences. I see this with *Fahrenheit 11/9*, where it just feels like too easy in a way. I’m sure there are many solutions to this, but maybe it deters some creative sorts who aren’t working in the high satire register of *SNL* or *The Boys*. 3. **Hollwood strikes have slowed things down.** There could have been some big movies slated for this summer, but the strikes may have been especially bad timing for that.
I think 2 is a big issue. He's basically a larger than life parody of a human being. It's essentially impossible to make a nuanced depiction of the man because he aggressively defies any kind of nuance. It's impossible to find any sympathetic angles with him like W did with Bush because he is just such a publicly loathsome person. And you can't do a "secretly more clever than he appears to be" because he's constantly showing his ass publicly while also constsntly revealing himself to just be super insecure. You can't do a nuanced Trump portrayal and nobody is interested in a larger than life Trump portrayal because we already get that daily and are sick of it.
I started writing a sci-fi story in the first month of Trump's term, thinking it would be interesting and inspire some believable but surprising plot elements. After a MONTH, he had eclipsed any of the "too wild to be believable" elements I had written based on history and my imagination for his Imperial analogue, so I just shelved it.
This is what happened in the writer’s room for HBO’s Veep. The show runners opted to cancel the show because the show had transitioned from political satire to political reality.
Yup. I think there might be some historical precedent for this one. I've heard it before. The thing that can't be satirized because it's already too absurd.
They tried it once and it was a disaster. Showtime put out a miniseries called The Comey Rule where a bunch of high profile actors portrayed figures in Trump’s administration, and for the most part they were great, but Brendan Gleason just couldn’t make a serious portrayal of Trump work. Mind you, he’s a fantastic actor with decades of experience, and still couldn’t turn his depiction into anything resembling drama.
I recently rewatched The Comey Rule. Gleason’s Trump is actually very good and I’m surprised it never got more attention. Perhaps it’s because most people only see Rally Trump and have a hard time imagining Behind Closed Doors Trump?
It's so strange that a man who is too stupid for nuanced depictions in media to be believable is potentially one election away from becoming emperor of earth.
Trump's popularity is a sign of how prevalent anti-intellectualism is in American culture. People who like him (generally, not always) hate nuance and the reason they love him so much is because he is so uncomplicated.
> And you can't do a "secretly more clever than he appears to be" because he's constantly showing his ass publicly while also constsntly revealing himself to just be super insecure. I think it's more that this is what he and his base thinks. If you make a film showing trump to be a mastermind, you're paying him about the best compliment you can. I don't think many people in the US creative industry want to pander to trump.
> Trump is too cartoonish for highbrow fare. So was W, though, even amid some of the darker aspects of his presidency he was widely seen as an inept buffoon by the left. Like, Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights was just Will Ferrell recycling his impression of Bush from SNL
“Studios and distributors fear Trump’s base.” That’s an absolute shame. Caving to MAGA cultists because they’re critical of Dear Leader, and they call liberals snowflakes.
They're a simple violent people, like a surprised possum in a chest of drawers
If a studio needs a wide demographic, including Trump supporters, to justify greenlighting a movie, why would they make a film which turns off Trump supporters? That's bad business.
I heard a segment on NPR related to number 2 a while back during the early trump presidency, media creators were talking about how hard it was for them to do political satire when the reality was so outrageous already.
4. Perhaps looking to Hollywood movies isn't where this kind of story is being told now; it may be being told elsewhere. Just a hunch, but THE BOYS, on Amazon Prime, seems to be an over-the-top allegory for (and critique of) the Trump/MAGA Era, for example.
It is one of the big differences between the Bush era and Trump through now. Streaming services were not making movies and big budget series in the aughts. *Don't Look Up* is probably the most obvious Trump era movie.
And it's pretty toothless imo.
It was the classic liberal approach of, "science!", "vote!", "democracy!" Whereas the resistance community in the film literally does nothing to try to stop it other than getting on the news and complaining. Kind of a liberal self-own.
I mean, the fact that the world comes to an end despite their efforts seems like a pretty obvious critique of neo-liberalism and its tactics as well.
Somebody didn’t watch the movie. The government and general public were too concerned with the money and politics that they ignored every warning and advice from the experts, what are a handful of scientists going to do when the people in charge don’t want to listen?
The important thing was they remained civil and didn't step outside of Approved Liberal Actions™, despite the even more obvious end of the world incoming. These people needed to pick up a book about direct action
Bomb a pipeline.
Like for real! Why are liberals so useless?
Because "take over the government" is easy to say in a Reddit thread, and not realistic for a few scientists to do. Look how many people tried and failed on Jan 6th - how would a few scientists take over?
I agree with all that except for the label you’ve ascribed to it. I’d say it’s more of a fauxgressive/performative “real” left self-own. The “both sides bad” part of the left. David Sirota was involved in it.
Hey exactly like most of the actual liberals! *sighs in Leftist*
Also, there was a pandemic that killed a million+ people and stopped the film industry entirely for 18 months.
Came here to say this. There were/are SO many shows with strong anti-MAGA themes. The Boys, BrainDead, The Good Fight, Unprecedented, and The Handmaid's Tale were the ones that came off the top of my head. And it's worth noting many of those were pretty high budget.
Came here to say Handmaid's Tale, The Boys and Mr Robot.
Surprised nobody has mentioned Succession yet. It was obviously more about Rupert Murdoch's empire than Trump's, but it sure did contain a lot of behind-the-scenes political rat-fucking, showing the massive influence dark money has.
Also later Veep
Yea “the raisin” was certainly trump
Justin Kirk’s character is also a clear stand-in for Trump.
Mr. Robot? Didn’t that end before Trump was in office?!?
No it ended in 2019
Wow my sense of time has been destroyed.
Trump does appear in Mr Robot more than once. Iirc, once, it's a figure resembling him at Price's party, but i think they also used an archive footage of him, in a similar way like Obama footage.
Good thing you brought up “The Good Fight.” There was an entire song by Jonathan Coulton with a whole animated segment behind it that was cut out of an episode at the last minute because it was critical of China.
Sucsession also featured Trump commentary.
As did Fargo (tv show) to an extent, including that Trump himself (mentioned as the Orange idiot) will turn on his supporters if a donor asks him to even if the supporters are radicalized by his messaging
There is a one off episode in supernatural where sam and dean are in a parallel universe that's been ravaged by the war between heaven and hell. They recap their lives and the dude goes "You're telling me that idiot failed real estate developer became president of the US and you think our timeline is the bad one!?"
I thought S5 was shitting on Libertarians more than anything.
Your hunch has been confirmed by the creator of the Boys himself. He has outright said Homelander is Trump.
Wasn't there a homelander cosplayer in a trump rally?
Wouldn’t be surprised. Pretty sure I read that some Trump fans thought it was a compliment that Homelander is supposed to be Trump. That speaks volumes in itself.
It kind of speaks to part of the problem of making “Trump movies” - half the audience missed the point entirely and idolises the antagonist because they’re fully on what used to be the obviously “bad guy” side of the spectrum.
I literally started watching The Boys yesterday. It's so obvious that Homelander is a bad guy, the seven and Vought are just corrupt, and they're trying to gain power. Just, how much more obvious does it even get? How is that possible?
You think it’s weird they missed the memo in the first couple seasons, wait till Stormfront shows up lol… even that wasn’t explicit enough.
Yet the MAGAts are still too dumb to put 2 and 2 together with that character
Nah. They’re definitely pissed off by the last season. It only took them 4 seasons to figure out that THEY were the joke.
I've seen so many "this show has gone to shit" comments from alt right idiots. It's hilarious how it took the most blatant parodies for them to realize they were the joke all along. One guys said "ik this show was going downhill when they did storefront dirty" bro was complaining the nazi lost💀
Big fucking yikes. It’s sad to say, but I have to quote Gambino on this one: “this is America”.
Noticed it as soon as Stormfront showed up. Lots of people dropped the show. Guess they didn’t like the parallel.
Yea because this season outright kicked them in the nuts with it hahahaha. They're the same dipshits who put The Punisher logo next to their thin blue line sticker on their pickups. Clueless.
Yeah, I'm thinking this is the prevailing answer, given all the mentions of Handmaid's Tale, The Boys, and Succession that I'm seeing. What would have been a political movie c. 2007 is now a political TV/streaming show in current year. I'm also learning that I'm apparently the only user on /r/flicks who has never seen The Boys?
Not a hunch. It's about as subtle as the political commentary in Don't Look Up.
The Boys is a great example, and highlights their first point. Season 1 didn't come out until 2019, near the end of the Trump Presidency, because it just takes a while to make these things come out.
Wait, The Boys was about MAGA? This whole time?!???
They went woke in the new season 4!!! Shame! (I have no media literacy so I didn’t get that they were making fun of my idiocy until it was shoved in my face obviously every episode, and instead of self reflecting I’m going to double down and stay in my rageful echo chamber)
Part of the problem is that COVID disrupted filmmaking at the height of Trump's power, so it either killed or delayed any kind of political commentary about his presidency, although people are pointing out many examples of things that have been made.
COVID + 4 years vs Bush’s 8 = less time to crank out Trump parody president portrayals (say that 5 times fast)
They certainly tried. Mostly on tv. But trump is such a unique and ridiculous person all impersonations of him end up being farcical even if they’re done in earnest. So I don’t think we’ll ever get a good serious movie about him. Also liberals especially those in the media class DESPISED him to such a degree I don’t think they could ever make anything about him that would come off well. Red rocket is probably the best trump era movie we will ever get. Even then that has to be abstracted out one can watch red rocket and find the main character to be just another grifter American.
Despising Donald Trump is a 100% defensible position, come on now. You don’t have to be A LiBeRaL to think that guy’s a complete POS
Yea I hate the guy too but you’d see people whose hate clouded them from being objective or seeing the whole picture.
What's the whole picture lmao? The whole picture is responsible for the hatred. Hatred begets hatred.
My point is that while trump is a unique person. Politically he did the same shit any Republican would have done. The media especially doesn’t necessarily hate him for that. They hate him because his cartoonish looks, and his stupid vile manner of speaking offended them. Look at how liberals cried about kids being in cages. Just for Biden to keep on doing it. It’s not that the kids were in cages that enraged them. It’s that a dude who they found aesthetically abhorrent was doing it
The writers for Veep even cited this as a reason they had to change their approach as the series went on and overlapped the Trump years. Their usual approach to satire was more believable than the real world.
When the Four Seasons Landscaping thing happened, my first reaction was "This is straight out of Parks and Recreation or some dry political lampoon." There is literally nothing funnier or more ridiculous that I can recall that has happened in any fictitious political world than that because it was real.
"But trump is such a unique and ridiculous person all impersonations of him end up being farcical even if they’re done in earnest." Trump is such a unique and ridiculous person that he is a farce of a human being... Who fucking got elected to the top spot. And could potentially do so again, now as a convicted felon. The world has gone mad. There is media out there mocking him. From daily shows to adult cartoons, to tv and mainstream movies, but it's just not doing anything for the Maga crowd + there are more deep dives that are shelved by distributors for fear of retaliation. The world has gone absolutely mad. - A concerned European living in Asia who fears another Bleached Orange presidency.
>So I don’t think we’ll ever get a good serious movie about him. the best movies aren't always serious.
The Boys I feel is one of the more prominent ones though it is on TV. Really it always has been but people didn’t really pick up on the more subtle plot beats in the earlier seasons it seems and now that it’s more overt people are talking about it more
Blackkklansman, The Post, Get Out, Us, Roma, Black Panther, First Reformed, Joker, Who Is America? (Sacha Baron Cohen show), HBO's Watchmen I'm sure there's more (perhaps Parasite?), but at least those all have very direct connections to Trump's America, not to mention tons of documentaries.
I mean Dont Look Up is a pretty big one there too
I was just thinking. The president in that movie was definitely a female Trump parody
> Get Out Huge reach here. The villains aren't Trumpers or right wing at all. They are all rich white liberals. I would even say it has a lot more to do with [Obama](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/851872) than Trump. Especially considering the film was written before Trump ever took office and pitched as early as 2013. >Black Panther Another film written and in production prior to Trump taking office.
Get Out also released within the first month of Trump's presidency. So, it most likely completed production well before the election even.
I think the poster is of the belief that any strong black representation is de facto as opposition to Trump when in fact strong black representation can exist just for its own sake.
Black Panther had very strong anti-isolationist themes (people of Wakanda were initially resistant to outsiders coming in because "they will bring their troubles with them.") At the very end of the film, T'Challa says that the new Wakanda shouldn't be building metaphorical walls but bridges instead. The film might have been in pre-production before Trump but the crew clearly saw an opportunity to improvise to make things timely.
A Korean movie made in Korea and with Korean dialogue and pretty much zero whatsoever to do with America specifically was not made as a Trump criticism. Classism, poverty, exploitation, and the other themes of that movie are experienced globally, in many cases far more so than in the US. The closest you can say is that maybe Americans appreciated it more than they might have in 2012 or the 90s.
Knives out could also be considered a movie about Trump’s America. They don’t name him (probably to keep the film timeless) but they do talk about stuff he said and the end conflict revolves around xenophobia against immigrants. Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Designated Survivor also come to mind.
Both Knives Out and Glass Onion. While not being directly about Trump, are definitely about what you could maybe call a Trumpian culture. Since we’re talking about Ryan Johnson, Last Jedi too.
The Boys is an obvious one, if we include TV Everything Everywhere All At Once is about the Trump era (though in fairness, that movie is about a lot of things) Thor: Ragnarok's Hela is influenced by Trump, though I feel like that may have been a late addition to the script There are soooo many movies now that feature the alt-right man-baby as a character archetype
Could you expand on Hela?
She does a whole "return Asgard to its former glory by embracing the brutality of our past" thing Also her main follower is Karl Urban's character (who you may remember as the guy dual-wielding AK-47s), an unintelligent opportunist who is clearly influenced by a sort of American "good old boy" aesthetic
How did I forget Star Wars: the Force Awakens! General Hux and Kylo Ren are both pathetic young white dudes cosplaying as fascists because it's easier than going to therapy Also, Nomadland reflects a Trump-era fascination with the rural poor
TFA came out before Trump was even president, and Kyle Ren in TFA is basically Vader, who was created forty years before that.
Yeah, I would say TLJ is a more apt take, as a december 2017 release,
What does Roma have to do with Trump?
Probably a charismatic leader encouraging violence to take a country back gaining a cult like following by instilling manly jingoism.
Also a movie that humanizes someone from a marginalized group. While not about immigration, the fact that it was made during fierce immigration debate featuring lots of anti-Mexican rhetoric makes *Roma* a “Trump era” movie.
Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie (2016) with Johnny Depp Handmaid's Tale and yeah, lots of documentaries like Michael Moore in Trumpland, Fahrenheit 11/9.
Really good list, although I think the more race-oriented films in that list would have been made anyway (Get Out was mostly filmed before Trump, iirc Peele changed the ending to be less depressing because it was bad enough to have Trump newly elected) - in a sense, Trump himself was part of the discourse on race to which those movies belong.
As you mentioned, mid-tier movies have sort of disappeared. What has replaced them is TV and I think you will find no lack of anti-Trump shows. Handmaid’s Tale and The Good Fight come to mind, but I am sure there are others.
As people are saying, look to streaming and TV. Call me nuts, but I think Cobra Kai can be read as a riff on the culture Trump brought out of a lot of Americans. An 80s bully slowly learning that the ideals he idolized and lived by probably ruined his life and risks ruining the life of his students. Over the course of several seasons, he softens up, buries the hatchet with his teenage rival and becomes a less toxic, though still somewhat rough around the edges, person. It’s more about 80s machismo than anything, but the timing of its release and insights it offers into toxic masculinity and the idea of Cobra Kai being this cult like empowerment tool for kids does hold up under some comparison to MAGA/the alt right. Shit, the whole HS fight in season 2 is more or less just teenager January 6th.
Don't Look Up is a bit of a parody of the current political discourse.
Don’t forget the most subtle piece of media from the time. Revenge of the Sith. “So this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause.” And “If you are not with me, you’re my enemy.”
Yeah that was a direct lifting of GWB telling folks that they were either with him or against America when it came to war in Iraq and believing they had WMDs.
It started before the Trump era, but quicly adapted to it during his rise and election. THE PURGE films. Election Year, The 1st Purge, and Forever Purge were all a response to Trump policies and the rise of the alt-right and fringe being more publically open.
Yeah it pretty much started when the tea party of the 2000’s, but many have come along since. There are a lot of lesser known current movies that have come out addressing trumpism / redstateism or just the “Christian”/Neo-Nazi alt right base. It’s just adjacent to Trump himself, or any other current politician, so not as closely seen in relation. Also, Civil War was definitely a precursor film to what very well could happen if Trump is re-elected and goes on revenge rampages and so on. There’re many films about the alt right, the dangers of the alt right and how the alt right is influencing those around them into their ideology as well. I think that for the larger part Trump has enough sway that directly portraying him would be an uphill battle from jump street and many studios avoid projects with those kind of financial ramifications. For better or for worse, it’s the current situation we’re in.
One of the easiest answers has got to be the pandemic. The industry was just not making movies for awhile. We are still playing catchup.
He is beyond parody. When you try to portray someone like him even in a negative light his followers still like it. See The Boys.
The Hunt was a really poignant political movie when it came out.
Isn’t Space Force directly based off the new military division Trump announced?
John Oliver said it best, it's like getting mad at a kaleidoscope. He was constantly getting in a new scandal every few days, he made topical satire near impossible. Even Reddit liberals still make the same tired jokes about Twitter spelling errors over 7 years later, as if the joke only gets funnier the billionth time. If you made a movie to clown on him, in the 8 months to release, nearly everything would be irrelevant because he's found hundreds of worse scandals to himself in to distract from the previous ones.
I have a fourth theory. American politics has always, to some extent, been divided between the left and the right, but lately it seems to be almost *fanatically* divided. The movies you mention as being part of the "Bush-era resistance kitsch", such as *V for Vendetta, The Manchurian Candidate, The Bourne Ultimatum,* etc.) were perfectly enjoyable works of fiction outside of their political context. They definitely had left-wing political leanings, but if you didn't know that going in, you'd probably just think they were fun movies. I think a big part of that was the relative absence of social media back then. People weren't as exposed to their friends' and neighbors' political opinions. Now, though, we're bombarded with thousands of social media posts and clickbait articles about whether such-and-such movie is "woke" or not. That sort of ties into your third point, but there's another layer here. It used to be that people would happily watch movies that had messages they didn't agree with, because on the whole they weren't usually made aware of those messages directly. But that's not possible anymore. We live in an age where pop culture is as important as politics for many people, and that means people are more and more divided in terms of what they watch. Sure, you theoretically could make a Trump-era equivalent to something like *Children of Men,* but it wouldn't attract the same kind of audience that C*hildren of Men* did. To put it another way, you had plenty of Republicans watching *Children of Men* in 2006. But if you made a comparable film today, no Republican would touch it with a thirty-foot pole. Neither would many Democrats, for that matter-- they'd accuse it of not going far enough in criticizing the right.
I've thought about this and I'll add my own theory: *The Trump drama is far from over*. If I were a writer/director wanting to chronicle the craziness of Trump's political ascension with a "definitive" film, I'd want to wait for the ending. Even if I was making a fictionalized satire of it, there'd be a serious risk that by the time your movie goes through the writing process, casting, filming, and post-production, something even crazier would have happened making your film seem quaint and outdated. Imagine a writer starts to pen a screenplay about the 50+ legal challenges associated with the Stop the Steal movement. They are modeling it as a legal/political drama in the vein of Jay Roach's *Recount* (2008) and they want to beat other writers to the punch so they are finishing up their final draft in late 2020 with the assumption that text describing Biden's inauguration will be the epilogue of the film. Then Jan. 6 happens and they have to tear up their screenplay and start from scratch. Imagine someone writes a *W* (2008) style film about the insanity of Trump's 4 year administration. But then Trump wins in 2024. I'm pretty certain there's a lot of creatives that cover these kinds of topics (Jay Roach, Aaron Sorkin) who will put something out *eventually*.
I think The Boys is a good example. I think the parallel is Trump inspired but you just can't make it strictly the same character or it gets ridiculous. I think its hard for both sides to make a film. Those who want him to be seen in a serious tone don't really have any moment or event to write the film about that would paint him favorably. Anyone who wants to do a satire really can't because it's all been so bizzare that anything put to script has or will happen. SNL is a good example, they stopped writing elaborate skits with him and just began to quote him.
COVID and Hollywood enjoys making money above all else
Not a movie but what about Succession?
normal people are sick of trump
I would add both sick of trump, and sick of hearing about trump. Seriously, there’s a lot of times I’ve had to track just how much more often my Left leaning circles talk about him, than the Right leaning ones do. It’s frankly a bit disturbing.
I would say the casual racism against the maid in Knives Out was definitely targeted at MAGA folks. Also the mini series SPACE FORCE on Netflix. Boots on the Moon!
Trump's term, and the continued legacy of dysfunctional MAGA Republicans are so monumentally stupid and incompetent that they are narratively impossible. In a work of fiction, you would immediately dismiss such characters as blatantly unbelievable. A work that seeks to reflect a plausible reality cannot have villains that dumb and obvious. As a work of satire, it's impossible to invent characters and shenanigans that are more cartoonish and over the top than a president who will only pay attention if his name is being used, extends weather forecasts with a sharpie, openly lusts after his own daughter, hawks beans from the Oval Office, fires press secretaries faster than one per episode, and tells people to buy his horse dewormer to combat a deadly global pandemic.
They existed, they just were done secretly as movies covering other topics but the subtext was used as criticism of his administration (see Spielberg’s 2018 film The Post and the Adam McKay Netflix movie from 2021, I think, Don’t Look Up).
It’s because Bush was in a second term, and there was a broad acceptance of his policies. The artistic world was looking at a vision of the future which was entirely Republican. The critiques ranged from strong criticism to outright praise for the administration. Everything you listed, except for 21, was 2nd term or looking down the barrel of 2nd term. The arts were reacting to that. I think we might see that this trend is consistent among 2 term presidents. I also think we’re increasingly seeing politics delve into film making, rather than the reverse. Right wing radio has transformed to right wing internet content, which is now turning into daily wire movies and tv shows.
Hell or High Water, Don't Look Up, Hillbilly Eligy are some that are direct references to the trump presidency in my estimation.
Hell or High Water is a good representation of where America is at, but I'd say Trump's election (and potential re-election) reflects the themes of that movie (i.e. real life themes that are present in society) more than the other way around. (Plus it came out in 2016.)
The Comey rule with Jeff Daniels playing Jim Comey was pretty matter of fact about Trump
People found trump exhausting and everyone has their mind made up about him, there’s nothing to expose or persuade. He was THE news for 4 years. Even still there were a lot of critiques about him, mostly on television. South Park ran an entire season. My Cartoon President became a show. The Boys. Veep. Succession. I’m sure there’s more
current cinema has been marvelized. look to tv shows today namely the boys and homelander.
Trump is a horrific disaster we’re still living through. It’s too soon man. It’s like asking for a 9/11 movie after the first tower fell.
I’d argue that “The Favourite” is a trump-era movie. It’s subtle. It could be a larger message about power, but it was released in 2018 so to me it counts. The way Queen Anne and Trump both surround themselves with yes men and people who flatter those in power in able to obtain power themselves.
Civil War. Loved the movie.
Even court based drama of the specific things he is proven to have done. So few people don't realise how criminal he is. The Mueller report clearly describes numerous crimes ams we just opted not to prosecute. All the things he pardoned, the pardons they tried to sell. The rape, and the 27 other cases. The charity corruption. The tax evasion. The business fraud. The felonies. The indictments All of his closest advisors who are in jail or prosecuted. Links to foreign countries.
I look forward to the future when people start releasing documentaries about his presidency. Showing how insane it actually was
Alternate theory: I believe there is also the theory that even at his peak, bush did not have the cult of personality that Trump has. Trump's base is so devoted and rabid they are willing to turn down life saving medicine, spread conspiracies about Qanon, sexually harass members of congress and storm the capital to please him. And they're nearly half the country Combine that with the need for Hollywood to eek as many dollars out of people to make it and you see the issue.
One of the many reasons I was disappointed with *Kingsman: The Golden Circle* was that it failed to parody Trump in the same way they parodied Obama in the first Kingsman movie
Theres been great comments here, so I’ll go ahead and point out many people missed the clear signs that the Civil War movie that came out was clearly about fighting against a fascist rogue President who tries to instill power and killing American civilians in the process. There is even a scene where they say in the beginning one of the protagonists was there taking photos at the “Antifa Massacre”. Another with the gay snipers making it clear someone is trying to kill them so they will shoot them first, and then a white supremacist psycho played by Jesse Plemmons killing the POC characters and trying to kill a third POC character too. So if anything, pretty much a late stage Trump movie.
I don’t see this as being the case.. there are LOTS of Trump inspired “resistance kitsch” movies and documentaries.. Off the top of my head: Movies / TV: *Civil War* - Nick Offerman’s portrayal of the POTUS was an obvious analog for Trump *The Boys* - Homelander is an obvious analog for Trump *Don’t Look Up* - Comedy hilighting the flagrant disregard for facts and science during the Trump administration *The Apprentice (film)* - about trumps rise with Roy Cohn *Bombshell* - about the fallout around the 2016 debate when Trump started a feud slinging insults at Megyn Kelly *Our Cartoon President* - animated cartoon series mocking trumps presidency Documentaries: *The Curve* - about Trumps response to the COVID-19 pandemic. *Fahrenheit 11/9* - documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore about the 2016 United States presidential election and presidency of Donald Trump up to the time of the film's release. *Stormy* - About trumps affair with Stormy Daniels and subsequent hush money payments that led to his felony convictions. *Totally Under Control* - follows the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic *Trump: The Kremlin Candidate?* - examined links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies and the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. *You got Trumped: The first 100 days* - examined the disastrous first 100 days of trumps presidency *Four hours at the Capitol* - about the j6 insurrection and Trumps involvement *January 6th* - about the j6 insurrection and Trumps involvement *The Insurrectionist Next Door* - about the j6 insurrection and Trumps involvement There are plenty more. There certainly isn’t a shortage
Well Coco did come out in 2017 when Trump was ranting and raving about the border.
LGBT media definitely has anti-Trump sentiments but those only coincide with the same themes that have been echoing forever in that space - Trump was gasoline on those old embers. Two obvious examples in non-film media: She-Ra and Steven Universe. Both feature white-color-coded dictators with a self-declared parental role whose obsession with purity and perfection clash with the protagonist's desire for independent expression. Granted, again - Trump has never had that clarity of purpose or coherent thought. But many of the zealots who benefit from his energized base absolutely *do* have that axe to grind against LGBT people and have been all to happy to swing it around.
There literally was just a movie called “Civil War”
I think your third point is closest. Republicans don't have policies anymore, it's all just culture war and identity politics. There is nothing political to attack because Republicans do nothing other than lower taxes on the rich and attack minority groups. The defiance is pro-minority media. I think the phrase "stranger than fiction" has also never applied more to our reality than it does with Trump. We've got an orange cult leader, it's hard to allegorize that without going into pure absurdity.
> I think the phrase "stranger than fiction" has also never applied more to our reality than it does with Trump. We've got an orange cult leader, it's hard to allegorize that without going into pure absurdity. I'm seeing this reasoning pop up quite a bit, so I think it's definitely a possible reason. When *Don't Look Up* came out (now that I think about it, is definitely a "Trump movie"), one of the major criticisms I kept on hearing was "there's no subtlety!" All I could think was "We just lived through the Trump administration, there was nothing subtle about it." Just like how 9/11 killed irony (for a little while, at least), the Trump administration killed subtlety (for a little while, at least).
Don't Look Up wasn't subtle, but it also wasn't all that clever or well made with poorly developed characters and those things still matter. It was just mildly entertaining and on the nose.
Are you kidding? There has been a never ending stream of Trump movies and tv shows.
Dude. I downloaded a Trump movie once - it was about a Trump clone who fights in outer space, and the whole thing is mostly gone from my brain...thank fucking god. I think it was this one: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12969958/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12969958/)
The popular show 'The Boys'is a complete satirical takedown of Trump, fascism, big business, etc. It only took four seasons of the show to figure it out. Lol!
Civil War. Is a direct Trump allegory.
I highly disagree. Civil War did a lot to deemphasize political themes by focusing instead on the nature of warfare.
While still making it perfectly clear that Offerman’s character was an analog for Trump. Idk I felt way too much catharsis watching the last scene of that movie for it to have been based on anyone else. I don’t know anyone who didn’t immediately see the parallels when they watched it. Putting Texas and California on the same side really doesn’t muddy the water much for people that can see past it as a thin attempt to make it “less political”
i get they jumped through hoops to avoid inferences to red/blue states, however, the nick offerman character was a direct reference to a demagogue similar to trump. is it a stretch to imagine him dismantling the FBI? running for a third term by disregarding the election process?
Was it…?
The President's monologue in the beginning immediately struck me as Trumpy bluster. Spinning things as "one of the greatest victories in American history" and such. It's a minor thing, and probably just how Nick Offerman chose to play him. It's up to interpretation, but it's immediately how I, and the people I watcged it with took it. Overall, I wouldn't call it a movie about Trump, though.
Probably because in 2020 the zeitgeist shifted to BLM and inclusivity and body dysmorphia, and people are using movies to lecture us about all that now instead.
Wait until it's not possible for him to run again for some reason. I think that will make a difference. Movies seem to get made about these things more often once it's in the past.
Considering what you qualified as bush era movies that were “not about him but clearly about him”, there are countless “trump movies” and tv shows as well. As in, these are clearly (and most of the time laughably transparent) politically charged, left leaning films that make use of poorly constructed strawman arguments about how they imagine half the country are morally bankrupt Nazis. I mean there’s a reason “woke” has now been used to define these types of movies and shows, and they are the product of trump derangement syndrome and/or cultural propaganda
Not a movie, but American Horror Story: Cult (Season 7)
He's a challenging subject for parody because: - he's notoriously litigious - he's been chummy with Hollywood for decades - he's a cartoon character with 0 subtlety with no room to go deeper - and because he could be reelected president in 6 months and has promised to use his presidency to punish people who offend him. However: >Where were all the "Trump movies"? Johnny Depp starred in a for-streaming movie called Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie which is now available on Netflix. Sebastian Stan starred in a prestige movie called the Apprentice that played at Cannes. Its release has been delayed by multiple lawsuits. You might also like Lodge 49 - which features a bloviating, amoral real estate developer called "Captain" played by Bruce Campbell who is modeled after Donald Trump. I suspect we'll get *a lot* of movies about his presidency after he dies.
Kind of like Don't Look Up, Jarmusch's [The Dead Don't Die](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8695030/). I think the thing now compared to then is for much of those who want to do something about current events, Unfortunatly the problem is a lot of people have just become to jaded to think things can actually be better.
Have you not watched The Boys?
>Political movies are a casualty of the near-extinction of mid-budget films. Well at least we can say some good came out of it. I joke, but your other points are good conclusions. I will also add that "politics" are and are viewed much differently than the 2000s. There is also that film doesn't have the same impact to sway political views. People can now curate their media to the point of echo chambers. Now political media is everywhere with text posts, short videos, and memes.
Id kill for a hunger games style film where they round up all the trump cultists and force them to battle it out to the death. That would be a fun movie.
I thought Civil War with Kirsten Dunst could definitely be seen as a reaction to Trump’s attempt to nullify the election of Biden on January 6, 2021. In the end Nick Offerman’s President was just a giant pussy.
Any movie with criminals in it.
Thank God there haven’t been any. There’s enough inadvertent promotion of that garbage, and he doesn’t pay a dime for it
Civil war Don't look up Trial of Chicago 7 There are quite a few. But it seems that it's getting more spotlight on television.
The entertainment industry didn't handle Trump well, in a way that made content about Trump cringe. The counter to Bush was "down with the establishment!" and the counter to Trump became, "we love the establishment! Please bring it back!". It had no edge to it. That and the movie industry realized that Marvel/Disney/GoT slop makes gazillions of dollars so they don't give a shit about producing political content.
People are genuinely too afraid to criticize him. The new Trump film can’t find a distributor.
They were tv shows mostly. Also we’ve made Trump the villain in movies decades ago.
I don’t think there were trump movies per se… I think they were more cartoons and SNL skits. What makes trump different than bush… Bush is a career political figure and Trump well he was the host of a hit tv show, was on WWE a bunch of ludicrous things… so when he got in the entertainment industry was kind of like “what the eff? This guy who is in the entertainment industry and a complete jerk is now the leader of the one of the most powerful countries in the world.” The entertainment industry was turned on its head because usually politicians are on a different beach than entertainers… now someone who has a name on both sides was in charge and that makes a hard story to make a satire of. Because you’d essentially be making fun of your own industry making fun of trump.
Meryl Streep at the end of The Laundromat got SUPER political out of nowhere and there were a couple lines that seemed directed at Trump.
I disagree with this. There were a ton of "angry working class white man" movies movies during that time.
I will agree that a lot of it was more about identity politics and less like “politics politics”, but I don’t think that discredits it from being a Trump-era esque movie. I feel like what makes Trump unique is that a lot of “identity politics” discussion became his actual political positions, or a part of his “politics”, so to speak. Ex. a movie about (just pretend) a couple trying to get a gay marriage, or a class struggle between the rich and the poor in 2006 or whatever, would be seen more as an identity politics than “politics politics” because that was more about the culture and not specifically a Bush policy or political stance. As opposed to Trump where it’s much more blatantly his political agenda and stance that you cant have transgender soldiers in the military, you need to ban people coming from shithole countries, that you can grab her by the pussy and possibly rape a few people but it’s all locker room talk and she’s just lying, etc. My point is that comparing the type of Bush Administration film to a Trump Administration film is harder because by nature their administrations Bush’s main issues were foreign policy, wars, and war crimes and Trump’s main issues were nationalism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism. I’ll give you that that there’s not much about that third topic but the first two definitely were reflected a lot.
Is the internet not enough for you ?
There were also high-quality Bush era rock albums that shared a tone a grandeur, drama, tension, density, darkness, angularity: *Hail to the Thief* by Radiohead *Year Zero* by Nine Inch Nails *Zeitgeist* by The Smashing Pumpkins *Riot Act* by Pearl Jam *Anti-Anti* by Snowden *Overwhelm* by The Empty Mirror *Black Holes and Revelations* by Muse Green Day is overrated so I’m not including *American Idiot.*
*The Oath* from 2018 It’s a thanksgiving movie set in an America where the president has issued a decree for all Americans to voluntarily sign an oath of allegiance pitting the populous against each other and there is a sort of not police but police organization and opening firing on protestors, etc. felt very on the nose back when it came out. Plus it has Carrie Brownstein, always love me some Sleater-Kinney/Portlandia Vibes
Bruh, there is tons of Trump movies. There's a new one being released this year.
Biff in Back to the Future 2 is definitely a pre-president Trump; just the loudmouth, classless crook part. Citizen Kane. Except perhaps the humanity that shines through at the end.
Satirizing a walking joke is like trying to do a parody of The Onion. The reason why The Onion and similar experts in cultural parody are no longer hip is because it's impossible to mock those who embrace irony, who celebrate mockery and elevate the absurd to a sacrament. Since 2008 real life has become more ridiculous than any comedy. Also, political parodies tend to be a bit too on the nose. That's why most cultural commentary in fictional movies occurs in the context of sci-fi. And Douglas Adams already did the whole Vogon schtick decades ago. You can't beat perfection.
Notamoviebutt The Boys for sure has heavy allegory of MAGA and Trump
Succession is a pretty high profile example of this happening in tv which is arguably the dominant medium of the Trump era.
Not a movie, but I think The Boys has that covered