By MIKE TEAL
and RAY KELLY
Donald Trump has lauded Citizen Kane as one of his favorite movies. In watching the second presidential debate tonight, we have to wonder if the Republican presidential candidate has lifted his campaign strategy from the Orson Welles masterpiece.
Speaking at the town hall style debate in St. Louis, Trump told Hillary Clinton: “If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception, there has never been anything like it and we’re going to have a special prosecutor.”
When Clinton responded, “it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in this country,” Trump fired back: “Because you’d be in jail.”
Rewind 75 years to tycoon Charles Foster Kane speaking at a campaign rally about “the downright villainy of boss Jim W. Gettys political machine.”
Kane tells the crowd, “But here’s one promise I’ll make and Boss Jim Gettys knows I’ll keep it. My first official act as governor of this state will be to appoint a special district attorney to arrange for the indictment, prosecution and conviction of Boss Jim W. Gettys.”
(Later, Gettys destroys Kane’s political aspirations by leaking a sex scandal involving Kane in the final stretch of the campaign.)
Gettys predicted Kane would not be able to be elected dogcatcher, a phrase Trump has used against Clinton, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and one-time rival Marco Rubio.
The “Fraud at Polls” headline in the Kane-owned Inquirer following his loss may have inspired Trump’s repeated warnings that if he loses on November 8, the election was rigged.
A day before the debate, the New York Times painted a portrait of the GOP candidate holed up in the “lonely fortress” of Trump Tower, painting a picture that was eerily similar to Charles Foster Kane at Xanadu.
In Citizen Kane, Xanadu, the unfinished Gulf Coast palace built by Charles Foster Kane, is described as having “100,000 trees, 20,000 tons of marble… Contents of Xanadu’s palace: paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace — a collection of everything so big it can never be cataloged or appraised; enough for 10 museums; the loot of the world.”
Indeed, Trump’s $200 million Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, sounds like its twin. Fortune described Mar-a-lago as “126 rooms on 17 acres bound by the Atlantic and Intracoastal waterway, liberally graced with glittering chandeliers, oriental rugs, and 16th century Flemish tapestries” – complete with rivers of marble, carved stone, and gold leaf.
There are other parallels between the fictional and real life tycoons, who run for political office.
Speaking to Errol Morris about Citizen Kane, Trump refused to acknowledged the similarity between Charles Foster Kane leaving his wife for would-be singer Susan Alexander, and Trump’s decision to end his marriage to Ivana Trump for future actress Marla Maples. (“I see no analogy between the two.’”)
Four months ago, Trump drew the ire of Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice, when he described her late father as “a total mess. But think of his wives. Think of his hits. He was like this great genius that after 26, never did it. He became totally impossible… I loved that.” She responded, “Never mind the inaccuracies and that what he is saying is so wrong – the rest of it is stupid. Why mention his wives? He’s talking about his films and then he brings up his wives? It’s just so stupid.”
The third presidential debate is set for October 19. We will be listening carefully to hear whether or not Trump shouts out “Sing Sing Gettys” or whispers “Rosebud.”
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Postscript (Oct. 11, 2016): The conservative opinion magazine The Weekly Standard cited the above Wellesnet article in its look at the status of the campaign, Citizen Trump? – The eerie similarities between DJT and CFK.
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