How Trump threatened and bullied like Tony Soprano to cling to power

Trump: The Criminal Conspiracy Case (BBC2)

Rating:

Bada-bing, bada-boom! There's one wise guy who can take the U.S. presidential election by the scruff and shake some sense into it — and it's not Donald Trump.

New Jersey mafia boss Tony Soprano is the man America needs. He'll keep the country safe, because protection is the basis of his business. He's not afraid to get his hands dirty, especially if that means dismembering a body in a bathtub.

And he understands economics, never afraid to increase interest rates — or burn down the homes of people who neglect to pay.

You might argue that Big Tony faces a fatal disadvantage, since The Sopranos ended in 2007and the actor who played him, James Gandolfini, died six years later. But coming back from the dead is standard practice for U.S. politicians. No one can persuade me that Trump isn't Tony S reborn.

It beggared belief, as Trump: The Criminal Conspiracy Case unfolded, that the permatanned property mogul from New York could be days away from a return to the White House. His actions in the wake of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, mirrored those of a banana republic dictator clinging to power during a coup.

 We heard tapes of his call to Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary of State for Georgia, in which he threatened, cajoled, bullied and even hinted at rewards if the vote count could be revised.

'Instead of keep saying that the numbers are right,' Trump urged, 'why do you keep fighting this thing? You would be respected, really respected, if this thing could be straightened out.'

That's dialogue right out of The Sopranos — Tony's arm across a rival's shoulders, his voice heavy with manipulation and menace.

Others caught up in the disputed vote count, on which the outcome of the entire election hinged, are so fearful of a Trump win that they are getting ready to flee the country. 'I haven't opened my blinds in years,' said Eric Coomer, an executive for the IT company, Dominion, that built the ballot-checking software.

Read More

What OTHER criminal cases does Trump face now he has been found guilty in the hush money trial?

He played some of the threatening messages that have driven him into hiding. 'I hope you picked out your cell in Guantanamo Bay,' snarled one of the more moderate ones.

All accusations that Dominion tampered with voting machines have been proven false, and broadcaster Fox News has had to pay it more than $700 million to settle defamation claims.

But that doesn't stop Trump supporters believing the election was rigged. In fact, it reinforces their certainty that the conspiracy theories are true, and that's what this documentary failed to grasp. Trump's stroke of genius has been to cast professional media sources, including the BBC, as implacable enemies of his freedom, just as Tony regards the FBI. Anyone connected to them is treacherous, by definition.

In less than two weeks, America goes back to the polls. The predicted result is on a knife-edge. If it goes against Trump, the wrath of his supporters will make Soprano gangsters look like the Salvation Army.