Unlock the US Election Countdown newsletter for free
The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Two new BBC documentaries about Donald Trump make for a compelling double feature ahead of next week’s US elections. Where one outlines why many across the political spectrum see the Republican nominee as a grave threat to American democracy, the other examines why he still has an even chance of winning re-election.
Trump: The Criminal Conspiracy Case focuses on the charges of election racketeering brought against Trump and 18 other co-defendants in Georgia, where the then-president lost by a narrow margin of 11,780 votes in 2020. (Trump denies all the charges against him.) Through interviews with witnesses, defendants, prosecutors and Trump’s representatives, it provides a clear-headed summary and analysis of the alleged “conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome” of the election in the state, as well as wider efforts of the MAGA campaign to undermine the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory.
While much of this will be familiar with those au fait with the ongoing case, many details remain startling. We hear Trump telling Georgia’s secretary of state, the Republican Brad Raffensperger, that he “need[s] 11 thousand votes”, on a call recorded by the latter’s office. Alongside alarming accusations made by Georgia prosecutors that Trump’s team and Georgia Republicans created a slate of fake electors to falsely certify a Trump victory — claims dubbed “a travesty” by Trump’s co-defendant John Eastman — we also hear how the Trump campaign singled out ordinary civilians for “stealing” the election. These include volunteer Georgia vote counters Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who then suffered harassment and threats from Trump supporters. Last year they successfully sued Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani for $140mn in a defamation case.
From those who feel targeted by Trump to those who feel protected by him: Panorama’s Trump: A Second Chance? follows a group of supporters whose devotion to Trump verges on the religious. Here, rather than being challenged by the documentary-makers, they are given room to speak about the economic malaise and political disenchantment that have drawn them to Trump. We see in real time how Trump’s rhetoric at rallies energises them and how mainstream coverage of his indictments inspires visceral outrage.
A range of academics, historians and politicians are also on hand to provide articulate reflections on the question of how Trump appeals to his base, why his populist tactics are underestimated by Democrats and what a second term might mean for the US and the world. All agree that this upcoming election could change the country irrevocably. For those concerned about a repeat of the 2021 Capitol insurrection, the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling and Project 2025 — the unofficial ultra-conservative policy blueprint for a Trump administration — it is a stark binary choice between “authoritarianism or democracy”, as historian Heather Cox Richardson puts it.
Trump supporters share a similar sentiment when they talk of the election as a battle of “light versus dark”. The fact that they, mostly working-class Christians and self-styled “patriots”, view a billionaire mired in sleaze and scandal as their saviour is a paradox that the film addresses but can’t fully unpick.
★★★★☆
‘Trump: A Second Chance’ airs on BBC1 on October 28 at 8pm and streaming on iPlayer. ‘Trump: A Criminal Conspiracy’ is available to stream on iPlayer