Like him or loathe him US President Donald Trump is a great storyteller to his loyal voters at least - Anthony Clavane

They are pretty addictive, really. Especially the ones, like Independence Day and White House Down, in which the president’s mansion comes under attack from sinister outside forces.

So, when I switched on the news earlier in the week, I was surprised to come across an extract from a film I hadn’t seen before.

It featured a still-contagious POTUS being discharged from hospital and, with dramatic music blaring in the background, landing in Marine One. Then, hair blowing majestically, he walked up the stairs to the balcony. As his country’s flag fluttered proudly in the breeze, the still-contagious POTUS tore off his mask defiantly.

He appeared, it has to be said, a little short of breath. I wasn’t sure of the title of this new film. Perhaps it was called Trump: The Triumphant Return. Or American Idiot.

The president’s advisers clearly believed a Hollywood-style short movie about his return to the White House would be a surefire hit; the latest, and most exciting, instalment of The Donald Trump Story. Which, as we all know, is a multi-part epic about one man’s mission to save the world from the forces of evil.

Previous episodes have seen our hero putting America first, draining the swamp and defeating the deep state. It was, of course, a campaign video.

But it showed the extent to which, in the last four years, he has attempted to define his presidency in cinematic terms, borrowing from the world of pop culture to construct a compelling political narrative which attracts mass support.

For like him or loathe him, one can’t deny that – to his loyal electoral base, at least – he’s a great storyteller.

I have just finished reading a book by Philip Seargeant called The Art of Political Storytelling. It came out before the global pandemic but notes that “the structure of the Trump story was torn straight from the template of all great drama”.

In a world of showbiz politics, news broadcasting is increasingly about storytelling. Seargeant dates this back to the start of rolling news coverage on cable TV in the 1980s, when current affairs began to bleed into entertainment.

“Any broadcast environment that’s chasing ratings will seek out conflict and sensationalism,” he writes. “It will look to coerce or manufacture drama.”

As we know, in this age of post-truth, alternative facts and fake news, tapping into emotions is a higher priority than presenting rational argument. Quantitative research, statistical data and hard facts are not sufficient – at least not when confronting emotive societal problems such as a global pandemic.

Offering more data does not work against politicians who feel that the facts conflict with their prejudices or feelings.

But with Trump behind Joe Biden in the polls, and facing the humiliating prospect of joining the one-term presidency club, this is becoming an election like no other.

His bizarre balcony moment was compared, by one commentator, to a sci-fi horror film. Another evoked the scenes in Evita when Eva Peron, married to the populist president of Argentina, would stand on the balcony of the Casa Rosada and deliver speeches to the masses.

Which narrative do you prefer? Trump as superhero, showing courage and resilience? Or as comic buffoon, displaying recklessness and complacency towards a deadly virus?

The former reality TV star’s storytelling has so far worked wonders with his fans. They seem to think he’s the star of a Hollywood blockbuster. But the evidence suggests his increasingly desperate attempts to overturn the poll deficit to Biden are backfiring.

“In Hollywood terms,” CNN presenter Brian Stelter told viewers, “it’s as if Trump has a well-stocked writers room, where loyalists develop the

plotlines for the next episodes.”

It is too early to tell whether this story will become a classic. We will know next month, on Tuesday November 3 to be precise, whether his “Covita” moment was the final act of an unprecedented era.

Will The Donald Trump Story be looked back on as a heroic drama or a Chekhovian tragedy? Or, as I suspect, a nightmarish farce?

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Thank you

James Mitchinson