The Accidental President Movie Review

“The Accidental President” is a documentary about the results of the 2016 presidential race in the United States between Hillary Clinton and former game show host Donald Trump. ​
Since the world had as much interest in the outcome as the average American voter did, you might not be surprised to learn the film was made by a British filmmaker and journalist named James Fletcher. Fletcher also made a two-part mini-series about what his country went through during Prime Minister David Cameron’s term called “The Cameron Years.” Having made a political film more than once now, and with his journalism background, he’s quite good at making sure he covers the subject well. And, to be fair in his analysis, he speaks to key people from both sides.

He starts off by kind of explaining his title. He does this by interviewing people such as talk show host Jerry Springer and Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. He also cleverly uses an old clip from late-night host Seth Myers during a White House Correspondents Dinner to reveal how people felt about a Trump candidacy.

Springer says, “Hillary belongs in the White House; Trump belongs on my show.” Public affairs strategist Steve Schmidt says that Trump is “Utterly unqualified.” At the same time, actor Robert DeNiro suggests that Trump is an embarrassment to the country as a whole. On his late-night show, Stephen Colbert looks at an image of Donald Trump and loudly tells it that it’s, “NOT going to be president, alright?!” President Obama says that he can imagine Trump’s candidacy if it were a Saturday Night Live skit.

There are several more examples before Fletcher gives us Van Jones, more or less, telling us how everyone missed the warning signs in Trump’s popularity. “If something keeps getting bigger and bigger every day, it’s probably going to continue doing that.” Between these interviews, he shows us stats of Trump’s approval ratings rise.

Not many people in politics took Donald Trump seriously, so they didn’t believe they’d have to fear him. What they were missing, especially the pollsters and in the other candidates’ campaigns, was how much he was liked. The voters were tired of the same politicians who offered them the same thing decade after decade. They didn’t trust them anymore.

Trump, who truly may have only been looking at his candidacy as a way to boost his brand, as many suggest here, offered them jobs and he certainly entertained them. He knew how to reach them, so he made them believe that with Trump and only Trump, all would be well. He knew how to work television more than any of them did. Scott Adams, creator of the cartoon “Dilbert,” says that “With Trump’s candidacy, the news became comedy.”

Republicans running against him made the mistake of doing the opposite of what he did. Because of this, it wasn’t long before they were all eliminated. How Trump achieved that goal was by being as raw as he could be. In the first Republican debate, they were all asked if any of them would be against supporting the eventual nominee. Donald Trump was the only person who raised his hand. He did this because he knew that the name of the game was to get on social media. Whoever got people talking on Facebook, Twitter, and other such platforms first, they would win the night… and probably the race. At this point, Trump was all EVERY news station was talking about, primarily because of how rude he was. He shocked everyone by starting to give the other candidates nicknames. Adams submits that once Trump calls Jeb Bush “Low Energy,” voters couldn’t see him as a serious candidate again. Van Jones adds that at that moment, “The Bush dynasty is done.”

Of course, Fletcher covers some of the race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, as well. He gives us the numbers of the winner of the popular vote versus the Electoral College winner and how that gave us Donald Trump. Fletcher focuses on how unfair that process is. He also sheds light on the fact that had other campaigns thrown out the playbook, as Trump did, they would have fared better.

This quote by Aaron Sorkin (creator of “West Wing”) sums up everything you need to know about Trump if you didn’t know it already. He says, “It’s baffling to me why people would say that Trump gets anyone in the rustbelt, any middle-class person. Not only, yes, does his literally live in a gold tower in New York City, and a mansion in Beverly Hills, on a golf course in Florida, I never saw a speech of Donald Trump’s where he addressed the needs of the working class. I never saw a single speech of Donald Trump’s where he talked about anything but himself and his enemies.”

“The Accidental President,” asks, “How did we end up with Donald Trump as President?” When you watch this movie, you’ll see what those errors and miscalculations were… even that they may come down to the small things. Those “things” can be so minor as not having a memorable slogan.

By making this documentary, Fletcher is attempting to enlighten the citizens of the United States. The most significant point here is that people need to know more about the bigger picture and educate themselves on their candidates. They should also make efforts to stay involved in politics, not just run to the polls to vote for the person who gets the most coverage. This is very well done and I suggest you see it no matter your political leanings.

IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt12920934/

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