Stephen Arnell

Trump and the art of compromising material

Ten of the best films about political kompromat

  • From Spectator Life
Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron [Getty Images]

When the FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, they found a file titled ‘Info re: President of France’. Many have speculated (with no little encouragement from Trump himself) that it contains illicit details of Emmanuel Macron’s sex life

Whatever the truth about this particular cache, political kompromat has long been a source of great drama – both on and off screen. Some bring it upon themselves – Gary Hart blew his chances of securing the US Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 by inviting reporters to dig up dirt on him (‘Follow me around, put a tail on me. You’d be very bored’). They promptly did – and the events surrounding the 51-year-old married senator’s alleged dalliance with 29-year-old Donna Rice are explored in 2018’s The Front Runner, with Hugh Jackman as Hart.

The early 1960s was a particularly fecund time for motion pictures about the blackmail of politicians over sexual indiscretions, likely due to the Profumo affair in the UK and gossip surrounding JFK’s shenanigans in the States. Here

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