In Arizona, meeting at the conspiracy cinema for the film “Vindicating Trump”

Photo: Chip Somodevilla Agence France-Presse “Vindicating Trump” paints a hagiographic portrait of the former president of the United States and candidate for the White House.

Stéphane Baillargeon in Phoenix, Arizona

Published at 12:00 am

• United States

The November U.S. presidential election will be played out in a handful of swing states, including Nevada and Arizona. The series takes a political journey through these fiercely contested areas. Second stop, this time to give the Republicans a voice.

There were exactly seventeen people in Theater 14 of the Mesa Mall in suburban eastern Phoenix on that Wednesday night in late September. All drawn there for the 5:00 p.m. screening of the Arizona premiere of Vindicating Trump, a propaganda documentary by notorious conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza.

The Richards, husband and wife, seated at the far back of the screening room, chuckled repeatedly as clips ridiculed presidential candidate Kamala Harris and the aging Democratic incumbent. For example, when an actor portraying a liberal organizer says, “The only thing Joe Biden can fill is his diaper…”

“I laughed because I thought it was funny and mostly because it was true: Sometimes, truth can be funnier than fiction,” Kurt Richard explained afterward. “The way Kamala Harris presents herself to ordinary people, like me, shows her detached from reality, from our realities. So when she speaks, yes, it makes her ridiculous and sometimes hilarious.” »

Films about his life and work are starting to pile up on screens big and small. The Apprentice, equally recent, focuses on his early decades in business, “before Trump was Trump.” None of Hollywood’s major studios wanted to take the risk of distributing it.

Vindicating Trumpplays on the (let's say) documentary mode. The film paints a hagiographic portrait of the former president of the United States campaigning to reinvest the White House. The objective summarized by the title: “confirm” or “prove right” the right-wing leader. The demonstration is based on excerpts from interviews with him, his lawyer, Alina Habba, and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who is also the head of the Republican National Committee. The film also uses scenarios imagining ridiculous meetings of senior leaders of the Democratic Party. Hence the sporadic chuckles of the Richards.

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From Alaska to Arizona via Mexico

The couple lives about thirty minutes (by car, of course) from the cinema. It was the husband who had the idea to come and see the first screening. “We have four children, two adults and two minors,” he explains. “We worry, especially about them. I can’t speak for my wife, but in any case, for me, the film corroborates what I believe, what’s happening.”

Veronica Richard speaks about it in turn. She continues by mentioning the subject of immigration, a major electoral issue in the country and even more so in Arizona, one of the main gateways for migrants from the south. She herself is originally from Monterey, Mexico. She arrived in the United States several decades ago.

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“I went through the legal process,” she said. “It took me five years. Americans, I mean, some Americans, don’t know what it means to live in a poor country. Mexico is one of those poor countries. I came here because of poverty, to realize the American dream of prosperity, and I don’t see that dream being attainable for my own children anymore.”

The couple met about thirty years ago at a wedding. Mr. Richard was a police officer in Alaska. The family has been living in the hot Arizona sun since his father retired thirteen years ago.

“I’m a former police officer, so I’m a law enforcement officer,” he says. “When I see the chaos at the nearby border, I understand what the chaos could be. It makes me really nervous for my kids. So yes, for me, the number one issue in this election is border security. We have a right as citizens to know who’s coming into this country and what level of security we can expect from newcomers.”

He cites the economy as the “second biggest issue,” especially inflation. “Everything is more expensive.”

Conservative First

The former cop points out that the family’s votes aren’t going to Republicans, but to conservatives. “We base ourselves on the principles and values ​​of the candidate, not just on the fact that he has an R next to his name on the ballot,” he sums up.

Okay, but still ? Mr. Richard talks about the importance of individual freedom and a minimalist state. “We basically want the government to leave us alone, to get out of our lives, so we can do what we do and live in peace.”

He adds the weight of Christian values ​​to the electoral balance. “I don’t want to sound preachy, but we all know that anyone can make mistakes,” says the ex-cop. “We’re all sinners and politicians are no different. For me, the Christian principle that stands out the most is abortion. Even in the animal kingdom, you don’t kill your own children. Based on that, I could never vote for a Democrat. The Democrats’ values ​​are always contrary to my own.”

It had been a good day for him with the film and a poll that put candidate Trump ahead of Kamala Harris by six points in Arizona. However, according to Mr. Richard, the integrity of the electoral system would be threatened by attempts at electoral fraud.

This idea takes up one of the central conspiracy theories in the documentary, namely that the Democrats are still rigging to steal the election. Another main line is that the trials brought against Donald Trump are the result of political manipulation of the justice system.

God and the Constitution

Dinesh D’Souza, born in Mumbai, India, has been writing a series of scathing articles peddling falsehoods and outrageous claims for over a decade. He has conducted incriminating work against major Democratic figures (Obama’s America, Hillary’s America). He has already developed the unfounded and dismantled allegations in court that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election (2000 Mules) and the politicization of the police and justice (Police State), always with the same recipe using “historical” reconstructions. His latest opus, claiming to demonstrate how to stuff ballot boxes, would exhaust an army of fact-checkers.

Some of his documentaries have made tens of millions in profits despite fierce denunciations accusing Mr. D'Souza of uttering lies. Unless I am mistaken, Vindicating Trump has simply been shunned by the American mainstream media, which do not talk about it, neither good nor bad. On the other hand, more than 250 people have given the film an average rating of 98% on the Rotten Tomatoes site, which shows the credibility of the exercise…

“I think the deep division in the country that we hear so much about is created by the media,” Kurt Richard finally says. “There are good journalists and bad journalists. The good ones are there to report what’s going on, and the bad ones are there to tell people what to think. In the long run, you can get people to believe anything. So I don’t think people are as divided as they seem. I don’t think it’s as bad as it seems.”

So there is some hope for finding common ground, a consensual center in this republic split in two ? “My way of agreeing or disagreeing with someone is through their judgment of the Constitution of the United States,” replies citizen Richard. “I believe that this document was literally inspired by God, by Providence, to teach men and women to govern themselves. Anyone, Republican or Democrat, who is ready to believe in the same thing and to defend this principle becomes my brother.”

This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-Le Devoir.