The filmmakers behind #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump fire another warning shot in #Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism.

If you’re a regular reader here, what I’m writing here is nothing new. It’s a case of preaching to the choir. The people that need to hear what the film has to say, sadly, will probably not watch the film. That’s a shame. It’s unfortunate, too, because we’re talking about cultists that do not realize they are in a cult.

Where the first film focuses on Trump himself, the sequel focuses on what Trump unleashed onto the American political landscape: Trumpism. If anyone thinks that a second Trump administration will be better than the first, look at who he selected as his running mate: J.D. Vance. Vance, a current senator from Ohio, is a far-right white nationalist. He is as bad as Trump, if not worse. Put it this way: they are two peas in the same pod. This isn’t a case of a far-right politician selecting a centrist to appeal to moderates and independents. No, it is way worse. They are both far-right politicians and will appeal only to the Trumpist cult.

Filmmakers gather political conservatives, psychologists, and historians in their exploration of how partisanship, disinformation, and social media are leading Trumpists to anger, conspiracy theories, and ultimately, the political violence threatening democracy. A number of experts specifically focus on the likes of fascism or cultism. Cultism is certainly one of the few phrases to describe Trumpism. Steven Hassan knows about cultism from being a cultist follower of Sun Myung Moon. Anyway, there is nothing healthy about Trumpism. It’s almost as if Trump is controlling their minds and Trumpism is certainly authoritarian in nature.

Not surprisingly, the film opens with Donald J. Trump delivering his inciting speech on January 6, 2021, prior to that day’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. How else could the #Unfit filmmakers start out their sequel? I certainly did not foresee that he was capable of inciting a seditious insurrection when I first watched #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump in August 2020. Obviously, I knew he was authoritarian in nature and the Trump administration was “not a regular administration.” Far from it, actually.

“I was at one time considered trumpier than Trump,” remarks former congressman Joe Walsh, a tea party conservative.

Years after attacking then-President Barack Obama and shouting during an address to Congress, Walsh comes off as a very different man. He voted for Trump in 2016 but now understands the evilness of Trump.

What is Joe Walsh saying right now? Read for yourself:

“Our democracy right now is hanging by a thread, literally. I don’t think the Democrats sufficiently understand how radicalized the Republican base is.”

Former RNC chairman Michael Steele no longer recognizes today’s Republican Party. Could the party go away or evolve into something worse? It’s theoretically possible. As Walsh comments, the Republican Party is now anti-democracy. He isn’t wrong. The party is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln and has not been for some time.

Make no mistake that Fox News is playing a role in all of this. They have taken things to the extremes, more so in recent years. It should be very telling when the ADL goes after Fox News because of Tucker Carlson going all in on the Great Replacement Theory. A number of network hosts were spreading their own lies following the 2020 election. It was enough that they were involved in repeated lawsuits over defamation. “Fox wants you to think that there’s a war on Xmas,” says Anthony Scaramucci.

Walsh: “CNN has a bias but CNN is truthful. MSNBC has a bias but MSNBC is truthful. Fox News is biased but Fox News generally doesn’t even deal in the world of truth anymore.”

Malcolm Nance has become one of my favorite experts to follow on social media. He’s been an amazing ally to the Jewish community, calling out the pro-Hamas activists. He’s also an expert when it comes to Russia–for a time, he went off to help Ukraine in their fault. He discusses how Putin helped reframe the narrative in the United States and Russia’s role in disinformation going viral. “You destroy democracy by using democracy,” Nance says.

Retired FBI Counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok was the lead agent in the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private email server as Russian attacks on the 2016 presidential elections. The Trump-Russia story was not a hoax. Members of the campaign were engaged with Russia or Russian agents. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee–led by Republicans–concluded that it was true. Knowing all of this, how are people still willing to vote for Trump?!?

No conversation can be had without discussing social media platforms. It is a hotbed for hateful content and disinformation. Imran Ahmed is the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. They did a study of Malgorithm during the pandemic. Following anti-vax accounts would lead to following QAnon and antisemitic accounts. In short, social media algorithms led to people becoming radicalized. Hell, it’s also led to right-wing Jews buying into antisemitic conspiracy theories–so much to the point that I have unfriended longtime family friends for becoming election deniers. How does this even happen? The Stop the Steal movement is QAnon-adjacent. Speaking of Jews, they show an excerpt of Sacha Baron Cohen’s keynote address at the ADL’s Never is Now Summit on Antisemitism and Hate.

This brings us to January 6, 2021. It was an attack on American democracy. I don’t feel the need to expand on why and how this happened.

Project 2025 enters the picture around 73 minutes into the 91-minute film. Trump claims to know nothing about it but it wouldn’t be happening without his knowledge. This is a manifesto that will try to turn Trump into a king. It will turn the USA into a Christian Nationalist country with Jews being turned into second or third-class citizens. Oh yeah, transgender people such as myself would not have any rights because LGBTQ rights would simply no longer exist.

As the likes of Denver Riggleman, Anthony Scaramucci, and Joe Walsh comment, there’s no short-term solution here. No matter what happens on Election Day, Trumpism is not going to go away, unfortunately. But as Walsh says: “We’re not getting out of this thing tomorrow and we’re not getting out of this thing in 2024 and Fox News is not going to change their business model any time soon. So the immediate task in front of us is to support the only person who can make sure Trump’s not re-elected. But if Trump went away tomorrow, Ron DeSantis will pick it up.”

Malcolm Nance: “It has to be more than a blue wave. It has to be a wave of Republicans that stand up for America, independents that are against totalitarianism, and Democrats will have to embrace them with open arms to understand that we are all one nation.”

#Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism does not tell us anything that we didn’t already know but it serves as another reminder that American democracy is at stake. It is urgent that America comes together to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. If we don’t, there’s no guarantee of another federal election in this country. Trump and company have shown us who they are. Trumpism must be defeated this November.

Like the film, I’ll give former congressman Adam Kinzinger the last word:

“Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this: Donald Trump’s conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation.

“It is a stain on our history. It is a dishonor to all those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy….The forces that Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away.

“The militant, intolerant ideologies, the militias, the alienation and the disaffection, the weird fantasies and disinformation. They’re all still out there. Ready to go. That’s the elephant in the room. But if January 6 has reminded us of anything, I pray it has reminded us of this: laws are just words on paper….

“Oaths matter more than party tribalism or the cheap thrill of scoring political points. We the people must demand more of our politicians and ourselves. Oaths matter. Character matters. Truth matters. If we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles, this great experiment of ours, this shining beacon on a hill, will not endure.”

DIRECTOR: Dan Partland
FEATURING: Imran Ahmed, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, George Conway, Brittany Friedman, John Gartner, Steven Hassan, Matthew MacWilliams, Malcolm Nance, Anne Nelson, Denver Riggleman, Anthony Scaramucci, Peter Strzok, Michael Steele, Joe Walsh

Dark Star Pictures released #Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism on September 3, 2024. Grade: 4/5

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