Documentary sequel suggesting that Donald Trump is not the benevolent champion he would have us believe.

Donald Trump is a gift to documentary filmmakers. All they have to do is dig a little and they will come up with some yummy, smelly manure. Here, the documentarian Anthony Baxter focuses on Trump’s disastrous golf course venture in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire. Promising local affluence and the making of 6,000 jobs, the Trump machine bulldozed the natural habitat and ancient dunes, cutting off the water supply to the locals and producing an employment opportunity for two chefs and a couple of greenskeepers. The 90-year-old Molly Forbes had a particularly hard time of it: “You don’t know how much you use water until you don’t have it.” Trump himself claimed that the nonagenarian reminded him of his own mother, but there’s no love lost between Molly and the foreign aggressor. She describes how she stands in the shower to wash herself while Baxter follows her to the local stream where she gathers water in an old paint pot to fill her kettle. And the fact that her central heating is run on water is only the start of it…

This is as much a portrait of the folk of Balmedie – and their fighting spirit – as it is about megalomania gone off the rails. One poor woman was filmed by Trump’s employees relieving herself in the local undergrowth and was accused of committing a “disgusting and shameful act” and was charged under section 47 of the Civic Government Act. Another scene shows Trump swanning about the area and dictating which houses he wanted removed. “Who cares?” he states clearly to camera. Well, the occupants of the house might have something to say.

It’s a ragbag affair, a combination of new, updated footage and recycled material from earlier films made by Baxter, namely You’ve Been Trumped (2011) and A Dangerous Game (2014). And not every theme is followed through. For Baxter newbies, though, this is an entertaining addition to the all-too-familiar mud-slinging anti-Trump circus. Still, even now, it’s shocking to witness the callousness of a man who put himself forward to represent the interests of the common working man of the USofA.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Featuring Molly Forbes, Donald Trump, Michael Forbes, Anthony Baxter, Sheila Forbes, Donald Trump Jr, Rohan Beyts.

Dir Anthony Baxter, Pro Richard Phinney, Screenplay Richard Phinney, Ph Anthony Baxter, Ed Anthony Baxter, Music Dominic Glynn.

Montrose Pictures/Creative Scotland/Northern Ireland Screen-Montrose Pictures.
78 mins. UK. 2016. Rel: 4 November 2016. VoD Release: 18 August 2020. Available on iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Journeyman and Vimeo. Cert. PG.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/youve-been-trumped-too/id1523863238

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