Trump Card is not up to the task

Last night I rented Dinesh D’Souza’s latest movie Trump Card. And, to put it bluntly, don’t bother.

I really enjoyed D’Souza’s films 2016: Obama’s America, America: Imagine a World Without Her, and Hillary’s America. But Trump Card? Not so much.

I didn’t just not enjoy it; I really hated it, to be honest with you.

The movie is self-indulgent, slipshod, and superficial.

Too harsh?

Sorry. I’m still a bit frustrated that I’ll never get back the time (or money) I wasted on it.

Trump Card bills itself as “Beating socialism, corruption and the Deep State.”

But in reality, it’s like the film version of some Boomer’s Facebook timeline – crammed with innuendo, silly memes and unfounded allegations all pretending to be serious political engagement.

Trump Card tries to do far too much in too little time. Though, I am grateful it wasn’t longer. As it is, I barely made it through to the end.

For some bizarre reason, D’Souza needed to start the movie with a dramatization of Trump calling to let D’Souza know he was pardoning him.

Why?

Who knows?

It has nothing to do with the purported theme of the film. And knowing that a Trump impersonator was employed to provide the President’s voice over the phone made the whole silly, irrelevant scene feel cartoonish and wildly unserious.

I think it is important to document the rise of American socialism. It absolutely deserves a deep-dive examination.

But Trump Card doesn’t do that.

“Deep dive” and Trump Card should never appear in the same sentence except when used ironically.

The content is superficial rather than carefully, thoroughly presented.

And it bounces around all over the place.

Deciding to tackle the Deep State in a movie about the encroaching socialism in America was out of place. Especially since, like the rest of the topics touched on, the Deep State segment was also cursory at best.

Then there was the assertion that Ilhan Omar is a Qatari asset controlled by Iran.

And what was the “evidence” provided for this assertion?

Some Muslim businessman from Canada claims that someone in Qatar told him that.

Ooooooh! Well, then, it MUST be true!

Listen, I’m no special pleader for Ilhan Omar. I think she is a dangerous radical who has no business serving in Congress, let alone being on the Foreign Relations committee.

But if you’re going to make that kind of accusation, you better back it up with proof. And “some guy in Qatar told me” isn’t proof.

Qatar’s involvement in the US media and politics is worth investigating.

But D’Souza’s Trump Card doesn’t do it.

Besides, there is already an excellent documentary on Qatar. It’s called “Blood Money,” which I reviewed HERE.

Trump Card is like the Readers Digest condensed version of a documentary. It crams in a bunch of stuff, but is so cursory in its examination, that ultimately it fails to address the meat of any of the topics it touches on.

Part of that is D’Souza isn’t a particularly good documentarian. He’s a filmmaker, yes, but not an investigative journalist.

What’s more, he is an even weaker interviewer.

The “interview” scenes are so staged, you can tell they’re staged. The questions and answers weren’t organic; instead they felt overly scripted.

And why on earth are two of the interview subjects his family?!

Really?

When discussing the Left’s commitment to abortion, D’Souza doesn’t interview someone like Lila Rose from Live Action. Instead, he interviews his twentysomething daughter while plugging her upcoming book.

Then, when he touches on Venezuela, D’Souza introduces a woman who was a former Venezuelan Olympic shooter. Which, naturally, gave the impression that she was the one who would be talking about Venezuela. Instead, the Olympic shooter just stands there while D’Souza’s wife does all the talking.

I mean, come on!

The dramatized scenes from Donald Trump’s life were gratuitous and silly – again because a Trump impersonator is providing the cartoonish voice of the Donald.

Honestly, Trump Card is all over the map. It attempts to do way too much. And in the end, it accomplishes nothing.

Maybe because I just watched the outstanding documentary The Plot Against the President that following up with D’Souza’s Trump Card was monumental letdown.

Trump Card isn’t thoughtful, researched or thorough.

I was left with the feeling that D’Souza was racing against time to get something (anything!) released in an election year and couldn’t make up his mind what to include and what to leave out.

And with what little he accomplishes, he really shouldn’t have bothered at all.

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