Netflix to stream Donald Trump documentary miniseries

Let’s face it. Virtually no one is neutral about President Donald Trump, Some people regard him as the billionaire populist who they elected to save the United States from the political and economic elites. Others think he is either the second coming of Hitler or a drooling idiot. Some think the president is those two things at the same time.

The one unassailable fact about Trump, the most unlikely president of the United States in history, is that he is a constant presence on both television and on social media. The president has proven adroit at driving the conversation, as well as many people to distraction, with his tweets. Therefore, it would seem to be somewhat eccentric for Netflix to stream a four-part documentary about Donald Trump. But, as GQ suggests, the miniseries serves as a primer about how a flamboyant billionaire managed to become the most powerful man in the world, beating out a gaggle of professional politicians, both Republican and Democrat.

Part One of “Trump: An American Dream” is Donald Trump’s origin story. Trump may talk as if he is the son of a truck driver, but in fact he was born to great wealth. He got his start in the New York real estate world thanks to a generous investment from his father.

Part Two takes Trump into the 1980s, with his tabloid, flashy lifestyle. His marriages and mistresses were the stuff of legend, along with his rise to wealth and power.

Part Three shows how Donald Trump almost lost everything in the 1990s. He came close to the brink of financial ruin due to a downturn in the real estate market and a number of bad business decisions.

Part Four depicts Trump’s rebirth as a reality TV star. The real estate tycoon parlayed his experience in wheeling and dealing into a new television franchise, including “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” in which he turned entrepreneurism into mass entertainment. And then, with no more worlds left to conquer in the business and media realms, Trump turned from expressing his opinions, some of them bizarre conspiracy theories, such as his dip into the Obama birth certificate affair, into a run for the presidency. Incredibly, Trump won, and we live in the world that was created by that unlikely political triumph.

The phrase “only in America” is one that tends to be over-used. However, with Donald Trump, the old adage fits. He did not become president by the usual route of being elected to a series of lesser offices. Trump did not win a world war, as Eisenhower did, or achieve anything else that would suggest that he might become president. A combination of cunning and bluster and the zeitgeist that made many Americans ready to vote for the most outside of political outsiders fueled Trump’s rise to power.

If you want to understand why Donald Trump is president or even if you want to view a great and strange story, “Donald Trump: An American Dream” may be for you. The British-made documentary miniseries is currently running on Netflix.