Donald Trump and the Rightwing Documentary Ecosystem

Last week, in the darkest days yet of his presidency, Donald Trump made a call for help.

It was to a prolific documentary producer.

David Bossie led a small rightwing nonprofit in Washington DC.
He was inspired by Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” to turn to documentary production.
His effort resulted in a historic Supreme Court decision that largely unshackled conservative funding of U.S. election campaigns.

Bossie backed Trump early on, and served as his campaign manager.

He joins another prolific rightwing documentarian in Trump’s innermost circle: That’s the president’s ‘chief strategist’ Stephen K. Bannon.
Bannon’s mission has been to ‘weaponize’ the documentary in his grim battle to save the West from drowning in a stew of threats.

When Trump created a defensive “War Room” soon after his first overseas trip, his generals were Bossie and Bannon.

Rightwing Ecosystem

The Right’s media economy has always interested me.
Back in the summer of 2015, the writer Gregory Crofton pitched me his idea to profile Bossie in this newsletter.
You can read Gregory’s full report here on how Bossie’s films are financed, produced, promoted and distributed.
Citizens United: Rightwing Documentary Studio With Zero Hits But a Huge Home Run
Who would have believed that Bossie would soon be sitting in the White House with president Trump?

Bannon’s Media Machine

The Washington Post’s Shawn Boburg and Robert O’ Harrow Jr recently published a fascinating report: “How Bannon’s Multimedia Machine Drove a Movement and Paid Him Millions” Washington Post (April 9, 2017.)
It reveals how Stephen Bannon caught Trump’s attention.

Highlights:

Bannon produced more than a dozen conservative documentaries in the past decade relying on funding from a “network” of two dozen nonprofits and private companies.
In 2011, Bannon forged an alliance with Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire and donor to ultra-rightwing causes.
- The Mercer family became key financial backers of Trump’s candidacy.
- The Mercers are also part-owners of Cambridge Analytica, the cutting-edge social media research agency that may have handed Trump his margin of victory in the Electoral College.
Bossie and Bannon partnered on the production of four films including “Generation Zero” (2010), “The Hope and the Change” (2012),“Occupy Unmasked” (2012), and “Torchbearer”(2016).
Bannon’s other documentary work includes: “Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration” (2006), “Battle for America” (2010), “Fire from the Heartland” (2010), “The Undefeated” (2011), “District of Corruption” (2012), “The Conservatives,” “Still Point in a Turning World,” and “Clinton Cash” (2016).
According to Box Office Mojo, only three of Bannon’s films reported theatrical earnings.

Hollywood to White House

The New Yorker’s Connie Bruck captures Bannon’s journey from “alpha swagger” in Hollywood to “dishevelled presence in the Oval Office”.
Here’s the link to Bruck’s revealing report, published on May 1, 2017.

PBS Frontline: “Bannon’s War”