"Attack, attack" TV documentary offers unexpected insights into Trump's life
A new TV documentary about the US President is being shown to mark Donald Trump's inauguration. In addition to assessments by a psychiatrist, his former head of security, Bolton, provides a look through the keyhole of the Oval Office.
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- The TV documentary "Donald Trump: Fateful Years of a President" sheds light on Trump's career from emotionally neglected child to real estate mogul to reality TV star and finally US president.
- In the documentary, psychiatrist Brandy Lee diagnoses Trump with an extreme desire for admiration, a lack of tolerance for weakness and a primitive view of personal relationships, while ex-security advisor John Bolton reports on his problematic power strategies.
- The TV documentary "Donald Trump: Schicksalsjahre eines Präsidenten" can be seen on ARD on Monday, January 20, at 8.15 p.m. and is already available in the ARD media library.
"I love it when the crowd cheers, it makes my ears ring": When it comes to poetry, seven-year-old Donald Trump still left room for improvement. However, the 78-year-old self of the soon to be re-elected US President would probably also subscribe to this message - after "an election victory the likes of which our country has never seen", as Trump himself likes to boast.
In light of his return to the White House, Erste is showing the documentary "Donald Trump: Fateful Years of a President" to mark Trump's inauguration.
Filmmakers Claire Walding and Inga Turczyn start with the Republican's childhood. Psychiatrist Brandy Lee notes the young Donald's "desire for admiration", although his emotionally cool parents "literally shoved him off" to a military boarding school.
After graduating with a degree in economics, he joined his father Fred in the real estate business. Trump Jr. quickly surpassed his father - and committed himself to ever more daring projects. He pursued these under the maxims of his mentor, the lawyer Roy Cohn. "Attack; attack. Always deny everything. Never admit defeat," says Gudrun Engel, ARD correspondent, listing his maxims.
Psychiatrist diagnoses Trump: "He does not tolerate weakness in others"
But with Cohn's AIDS diagnosis, Trump ended the male friendship as suddenly as he did drastically. "He became a despicable figure. Trump does not tolerate weakness in others, especially not in someone he admires," psychiatrist Lee characterizes the US president in the ARD documentary. Trump's approach to personal relationships is downright "primitive" according to the motto: "First idealize, then devalue."
The documentary, which is well worth watching, then touches on Trump's years as a property tycoon with new fields of activity - from casino to reality TV. "Welt" correspondent Jörg Wimalasena recognizes traits in Trump's genesis as a reality TV star that are also inherent in President Trump: "As soon as he sees a camera, he immediately switches into entertainer mode."
Ex-security advisor John Bolton opens up about Trump's behavior in the Oval Office
The last third of the 60-minute documentary is then devoted to Donald Trump's political ambitions, which nobody took seriously in the early 2000s. But with polarizing theses, xenophobia and conspiracy theories, the Republican made his way into the minds of Americans "He is pushing the boundaries of what can be said bit by bit", complains Gudrun Engel in the documentary. In doing so, he has "hit a nerve", analyzes Trump's former security advisor John Bolton.
During the 2016 election campaign, he also benefited from his rival Hillary Clinton, Sigmar Gabriel states: "When I saw how Clinton was running her election campaign, I thought: 'This could go wrong'." As we know, it did and the 78-year-old got into office despite "narcissism, sociopathy and paranoid traits" (Brandy Lee). Even when Bolton informed him of "worrying things" in the Oval Office, Trump's only response was: "Play it down!"
In the ARD film, his former colleague is quite dismissive of Trump: "Trump likes to hang out with big boys who are not restricted by an independent judiciary. They seem to have a lot more fun than he does, so he emulates them." Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel confirms Trump's US-centric view of the world: "The big boys of the world" - meaning China, Russia and above all the USA - would "sort things out for themselves and the rest must follow".
What happens next with the relationship of convenience between Donald Trump and Elon Musk
The fact that he is now back in the most politically powerful office in the world - despite storming the Capitol, despite numerous lawsuits in court - worries John Bolton: "I'm worried that Trump will put some campaign promises into action" - even though Trump has "no philosophy".
Meanwhile, author Annika Brockschmidt is more pragmatic and takes a sober, interested look at the relationship of convenience between Donald Trump and Elon Musk: "We saw during the first term how sensitive Trump is when someone potentially steals his thunder." At the end of the documentary, psychiatrist Brenda Lee predicts: "Trump will not be satisfied with an ordinary presidency." It will be interesting to see.
