D'Souza Takes on Socialism in New Doc Film 'Trump Card,' Slashes the 'Deep State' to Ribbons
Dinesh D’Souza has become the master of the conservative political documentary film genre, starting with his first offering, “2016: Obama’s America,” which examined the roots of then-President Barack Obama’s desire to fundamentally transform the United States.
Obama, D’Souza argued, saw the U.S. as fundamentally unjust, particularly in matters of race and wealth distribution.
“Trump Card,” the fifth of D’Souza’s films, picks up in a sense where “Obama’s America” ended, but this time the enemy is the “deep state” and the democratic socialists.
The protagonist is President Donald Trump, along with his tens of millions of supporters, who adhere to America’s founding ideals of individual liberty and opportunity. Together, they are the “trump card” that can thwart the left’s worst schemes.
“We are in a cold civil war. One that reminds us of the crisis Abraham Lincoln faced,” D’Souza says in the film, as an actor re-creates the scene of the first Republican president traveling back east by train to assume his office.
[jwplayer v2OdUVDx]
For Trump, the current crises he faces are his “Lincoln moment,” D’Souza told The Western Journal.
In other words, depending on how the president and the American people respond to this inflection point in history will dictate the country’s future for years to come.
“Lincoln was a moderate man,” D’Souza explained. “But when he came to Washington, he realized he was in a very immoderate situation.
[firefly_poll]
“A whole bunch of states had already seceded. More were going to secede. So the old strategy doesn’t work anymore. You need to respond differently. I think to understand that it is to begin to understand Trump.”
While no states have seceded under Trump, there is violence and civil unrest in the streets, with threats of more by leftists if the president should win re-election.
“It is amazing how similar this claim is to what the Democrats said about Lincoln,” D’Souza observed. “They basically said all hell will break loose if Lincoln is elected. And this is a very bad thing to say in a democratic debate, because you’re essentially trying to intimidate the other side and promising that you will break the rules of democracy if you lose.
“If anything, this should harden our resolve.”
“Trump Card” delves into the Obama administration’s “deep-state” efforts directed against the Trump campaign in 2016, including the targeting of campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos recounts to D’Souza in the film the multiple failed and bizarre attempts by both U.S. and foreign intelligence assets to try to link him (and thereby the campaign) to Russia.
Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, also shares with D’Souza the Obama administration’s onerous tactics directed at her beginning in 2010, including 23 different audits, investigations or inquiries.
Apparently, her only crime was leading an organization that seeks to investigate allegations of voter fraud.
D’Souza’s message is clear: These “gangster” tactics employed then will be used again, and probably even more brazenly if the Democrats retake the White House and Congress, especially given the rise of socialism in their ranks.
The essence of socialism is government control.
D’Souza contends Democrats are not truly looking to implement Scandinavian-style “socialism,” like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claim, but rather something more akin to the Venezuelan kind implemented by Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro.
In the film, D’Souza speaks to Venezuelan immigrant and “Top Shot” contestant Gabby Franco about gun confiscation directives in her native country.
“Everything starts with the lie, ‘This is for gun violence, control,’ and at the end of the day, how can people rise against the government when they are disarmed?” Franco says.
D’Souza’s wife Debbie, who is also a Venezuelan native, addresses in the film how Chavez, like the Democratic Party, engaged in identity politics based on race and wealth to gain power.
“He decided to demonize the white people in Venezuela,” she says, noting the country is very multi-racial.
Chavez also seized the wealth and property of the “rich” in the country to redistribute to the poor, she says, and managed to become a billionaire in the process.
This is the model the Democrats are advocating, D’Souza says. It’s the rob-Peter-through-high-income-and-“wealth”-taxes-to-give-“free”-benefits-to-Paul model, according to the conservative commentator.
The Scandinavian model, in contrast, requires all citizens of all income levels to pay high taxes to fund a generous welfare state, while maintaining a pro-business climate, including low corporate taxes, so capitalism can create wealth.
Trump famously promised during his State of the Union Address in February 2019: “America will never be a socialist country.”
“America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we will stay free.”
D’Souza told The Western Journal that in his first term, Trump has undone much of what Obama did to take the U.S. down the road to socialism.
“The reason the left is so eager to prevent a Trump second term is because you can really change the country in eight years,” he said.
“[Y]ou need a second term to consolidate the gains of the first … and the left is just hell bent on preventing him from getting it,” D’Souza added.
“Trump Card” makes the case as to why for those who value the American dream and individual liberty, there is really only one choice in November: Donald Trump.
“Trump Card” is available for pre-order exclusively through Western Journal Movies until Oct. 6. Click here to watch the trailer and purchase a copy of the DVD or digital download of the film today.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
