President Donald Trump and James Bond Villainy?

Silhouette Man

So, some six months in, I thought it was time we analysed the presidency of Donald J. Trump, not politically, but from the perspective of Bond 25 and beyond.

The earliest response to the Trump presidency from a Bondian point of view came in January 2017 after he was inaugurated from Purvis and Wade saying how difficult it would be from a script-writing point of view to write a modern Bond villain when there was a real life one in the White House. See articles here: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-30/james-bond-screenwriters-say-trump-makes-it-difficult-to-continue-the-007-franchise and here: https://townhall.com/columnists/christiantoto/2017/04/12/donald-trump-is-not-a-bond-villain-n2312300

This seemed rather a cop out, considering that the Bond films traditionally ignored current affairs trends (there are some exceptions of course, like the energy crisis plot in The Man with the Golden Gun, 1974) in favour of villains like Karl Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Hugo Drax in Moonraker (1979). In other words, they focused on megalomaniacs as villains as opposed to what the real world Soviets were up to at the time. Ian Fleming even did the same by moving away from SMERSH to SPECTRE to give the Soviets the benefit of the doubt for a while.

To my mind, President Trump most resembles the villain General Brutus Brute Clay in John Gardner's last Bond continuation novel Cold/Cold Fall (1996) as he wanted a fascist take over of the United States by using a bombing campaign against government building to takeover and use the then President Bill Clinton as their puppet to toughen up on law and order and crime etc. That is the only character I can see who resembles Trump in any real way, and yet there had been no discussion of this character or Gardner novel in the debate on Trump as a potential Bond villain. Strange, but given it's a Gardner Bond continuation novel, not altogether unexpected either. The novel is however well worth a read by the Bond fan in the current US Alt-Right political climate.

So this is the thread to discuss the potentiality of a President Trump inspired Bond villain in an upcoming Bond film, novel or comic strip. Please note that it is not a thread to attack Trump politically as such threads already exist on AJB if one wants to seek them out. This is not the thread for that type of thing, but rather the place to discuss how, if at all, the Trump presidency will influence James Bond villainy in the years to come and especially how it might influence Bond 25 scheduled for release in November 2019.

So I open the floor (of the House?) to those who want to discuss all aspects of the Trump presidency's potential influence on future Bond villainy...

Thunderpussy

Bad hair ? Could be Silva. Rambling/ difficult to understand speech, that
Could be Baine ( Obviously Batman not Bond I know )
Looking like he's in charge, when really someone else is pulling the strings
( Putin ) .. that could be Blofeld in DAF

Silhouette Man

Thunderpussy wrote:

Bad hair ? Could be Silva. Rambling/ difficult to understand speech, that
Could be Baine ( Obviously Batman not Bond I know )
Looking like he's in charge, when really someone else is pulling the strings
( Putin ) .. that could be Blofeld in DAF

Yes, interesting points of comparison there, TP.

I like Trump being likened to Willard Whyte in DAF with Putin-Blofeld really pulling the strings behind him. If Trump is going to be impeached at some point further down the line, then the Russian collusion allegations seem the most likely cause. It's all slowly unravelling like a Russian doll being slowly opened part by part.

Dirty Punker

Silhouette Man wrote:

Thunderpussy wrote:

Bad hair ? Could be Silva. Rambling/ difficult to understand speech, that
Could be Baine ( Obviously Batman not Bond I know )
Looking like he's in charge, when really someone else is pulling the strings
( Putin ) .. that could be Blofeld in DAF

Yes, interesting points of comparison there, TP.

I like Trump being likened to Willard Whyte in DAF with Putin-Blofeld really pulling the strings behind him. If Trump is going to be impeached at some point further down the line, then the Russian collusion allegations seem the most likely cause. It's all slowly unravelling like a Russian doll being slowly opened part by part.

Now that you mention Diamonds, Putin could've cloned himself to be in the Whyte House and have Trump answer to reporters etc.

Silhouette Man

Anyone else want to throw their wig into the ring on this one?

Gassy Man

Trump is too much of an idiot to be a Bond villain. He's a pampered NYC salesman with pretensions of being a gangster. He surrounds himself with thugs, nitwits, and sycophants, and while his rhetoric and political strategies may have Hitlerian overtones, his actual prowess is more like that of J.W. Pepper. He's closer to General Midwinter in The Billion Dollar Brain in inciting America's hee-haw, racist, gun-toting, Bible-thumping losers than anything in Bond, with the possible exception of Brad Whittaker in The Living Daylights, who shares some of Trump's delusional grandiosity and penchant for acting like a petulant child.

Trump is an embarassment to the United States and all that it stands for, and I apologize to the world that this we failed in our democracy to keep someone like him out of the Oval Office.

All this said, basing a villain on him would lead to a laughably ineffective and buffoonish caricature of a villain, taking the Bond series down even further in its inability to come up with someone truly threatening.

PPK 7.65mm

I fully agree with Gassy Man, if Donald Trump is close to any James Bond villain he defiantly close to Brad Whitaker with his delusions of greatness and his acting like a badly behaved child. It is really embarrassing to me as a US citizen to have such a loose cannon like him be in the Oval Office. He is a total buffoon, and has done nothing during his time in office but annoy various world leaders and American citizens alike. I will be surprised if he lasts much longer as President, given the mounting legal case against him.

Number24

Donald Trump has delusions of power? He is in power! I think Trump has the self confidence or even self image of a Bond villain, but I have no doubt that he sees himself as the hero and any opposition as the villains.

I think it's silly to say it's much harder to write a James Bond plot because of Trump. Fleming wrote the first Bond novel while Stalin was in power. Mao (tragically) lived and ruled many years after that. Many horrible, power-hungry and attention-addicted men and some women lived and ruled while Bond novels and movies were made. If anyone believes Trump is comparable in villainy to Stalin, that person needs a time-out and a long hard think.

Silhouette Man

I somehow omitted to post this link in the OP so I'll post it here now. Food for thought for Bond 25?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/30/james-bond-007-relevant-donald-trump-oligarchs

That said, I don't think they will go down the "Trump as Bond villain" route at all in Bond 25. There are plenty of other interesting things going on in the world at the minute and the US is still very much an ally of the UK, so the screenwriters would have to tread very carefully in my opinion. With the main proponents of this rather daft villain idea now gone from Bond 25 (Purvis and Wade of course) I assume the new writer will mean a sea change in the film story?

Higgins

Gassy Man wrote:

Trump is too much of an idiot to be a Bond villain. He's a pampered NYC salesman with pretensions of being a gangster. He surrounds himself with thugs, nitwits, and sycophants, and while his rhetoric and political strategies may have Hitlerian overtones, his actual prowess is more like that of J.W. Pepper. He's closer to General Midwinter in The Billion Dollar Brain in inciting America's hee-haw, racist, gun-toting, Bible-thumping losers than anything in Bond, with the possible exception of Brad Whittaker in The Living Daylights, who shares some of Trump's delusional grandiosity and penchant for acting like a petulant child.

Trump is an embarassment to the United States and all that it stands for, and I apologize to the world that this we failed in our democracy to keep someone like him out of the Oval Office.

All this said, basing a villain on him would lead to a laughably ineffective and buffoonish caricature of a villain, taking the Bond series down even further in its inability to come up with someone truly threatening.

Wow, that was brilliant!!!!

Thanks, GM {[]

The Domino Effect

Trump got 62,984,825 votes, so an obvious and identifiable lampoon of Trump in B25 could potentially hit the B25 U.S. box office very hard and have ramifications for future Bond movies in the U.S. Not a concern if you're Sean Penn, Oliver Stone or Michael Moore who would never get many of those viewers any way, but a big deal for any mainstream film.

walther p99

It would be in the films best interests not to involve Trump in any form and hopefully not be too political at all. Because it seems like the general public is sick of having politics shoved down their throat by every avenue of entertainment media possible. Particularly if its a obvious knock against Trump even if he's an easy target. As Domino Effect said above a lot of the country did in fact vote for him so you would be alienating a lot of your biggest viewing audience. Which doesn't seem like the most intelligent thing to do.

Matt S

walther p99 wrote:

It would be in the films best interests not to involve Trump in any form and hopefully not be too political at all. Because it seems like the general public is sick of having politics shoved down their throat by every avenue of entertainment media possible. Particularly if its a obvious knock against Trump even if he's an easy target. As Domino Effect said above a lot of the country did in fact vote for him so you would be alienating a lot of your biggest viewing audience. Which doesn't seem like the most intelligent thing to do.

The Bond films never make direct attacks on real people or countries. To create a Trump-like character, they could use a real estate mogul for a villain, but that's not what Trump is to the public anymore and wouldn't be as relevant. To create a world leader like Trump, they would need to create a fake country like they did in LALD, but that may be too comic-book for Bond these days. They could just create a villain with a Trump-like personality who is a public figure in the Bond world. Whatever they do, they don't want to make it too relevant to what's going on in the world today because it will date the film too much.

onemonk909

The Domino Effect wrote:

Trump got 62,984,825 votes, so an obvious and identifiable lampoon of Trump in B25 could potentially hit the B25 U.S. box office very hard and have ramifications for future Bond movies in the U.S. Not a concern if you're Sean Penn, Oliver Stone or Michael Moore who would never get many of those viewers any way, but a big deal for any mainstream film.

True. The ultimte irony is that Donald Trump is the most popular President in recent history -- if not ever -- yet he doesn't own the platform which would proclaim him as such. No other president -- while campaigning or while in office -- has turned out crowds like this man has. Sometimes 30,000 at a shot. When Hillary was campaigning in Florida, with Obama, she didn't even turn out the same number of attendees in three rallies combined to just one of the rallies Trump had in the same area.

SH, I respect the heck out of you, but your post overlooks the fact that a lot of us out here are intelligent enough to see past the MSM brainwashing machine and DO NOT think of Trump as a big bad villain. (If you want a true villain, take a look at the track record of his opponent in the election.)

Sure, he says some inappropriate things, but when you consider that the previous president did stuff like give Iran billions of dollars (in cash!), I'd say a couple offensive tweets/illicit affairs is an improvement.

Matt S

onemonk909 wrote:

The Domino Effect wrote:

Trump got 62,984,825 votes, so an obvious and identifiable lampoon of Trump in B25 could potentially hit the B25 U.S. box office very hard and have ramifications for future Bond movies in the U.S. Not a concern if you're Sean Penn, Oliver Stone or Michael Moore who would never get many of those viewers any way, but a big deal for any mainstream film.

True. The ultimte irony is that Donald Trump is the most popular President in recent history -- if not ever -- yet he doesn't own the platform which would proclaim him as such. No other president -- while campaigning or while in office -- has turned out crowds like this man has. Sometimes 30,000 at a shot. When Hillary was campaigning in Florida, with Obama, she didn't even turn out the same number of attendees in three rallies combined to just one of the rallies Trump had in the same area.

SH, I respect the heck out of you, but your post overlooks the fact that a lot of us out here are intelligent enough to see past the MSM brainwashing machine and DO NOT think of Trump as a big bad villain. (If you want a true villain, take a look at the track record of his opponent in the election.)

Sure, he says some inappropriate things, but when you consider that the previous president did stuff like give Iran billions of dollars (in cash!), I'd say a couple offensive tweets/illicit affairs is an improvement.

If you want to compare crowds, how about comparing the considerably larger crowd Obama drew at his inauguration in comparison to Trump's? You can't blame the media for making Trump look bad. He puts all the bad stuff about him up on his own Twitter account or says it at rallies or on television! Perhaps the next Bond villain should be publishing the details of his evil plans on Twitter?

Westward_Drift

Trump isn't the most popular when looking at actual votes, approval ratings, or size of inaugural crowds.

JTM

Westward_Drift wrote:

Trump isn't the most popular when looking at actual votes, approval ratings, or size of inaugural crowds.

Wait what, I thought Trump’s was “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period”?!

caractacus potts

why don't you people use Number24's Politics thread to argue this stuff that has nothing to do with James Bond films? thank you.
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/49721/the-short-lived-non-argumentative-polite-discussion-political-thread/

lueth2048

I 've been reading COLD Fall and Bond's fears abut COLD seem like a fairly accurate prediction of the Trump Administration.

Revolver66

If the Bond series hasn't made villains out of Nixon and Bush Jnr then Trump should be no different. Sure his persona is more outrageous, but so what? The series would compromise it's integrity and credibility by attempting a heavy handed social commentary/political statement of the day with a Trump inspired Bond 25. It's not really something I would wish them to pursue

superado

Revolver66 wrote:

If the Bond series hasn't made villains out of Nixon and Bush Jnr then Trump should be no different. Sure his persona is more outrageous, but so what? The series would compromise it's integrity and credibility by attempting a heavy handed social commentary/political statement of the day with a Trump inspired Bond 25. It's not really something I would wish them to pursue

Trump bashing has become so much a mainstay for network and cable TV, as it were the bread and circuses of the masses, a fad like twerking that has such a wide appeal, but one which I’d leave to the Whoopie Goldbergs and Jimmy Kimmels of the world. Staying clear of these is what keeps the series a class act. It’s only when it delved into whatever was trending did any of its classiness loose any of its luster.

Loeffelholz

caractacus potts wrote:

why don't you people use Number24's Politics thread to argue this stuff that has nothing to do with James Bond films? thank you.
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/49721/the-short-lived-non-argumentative-polite-discussion-political-thread/

Thank you! Although it seems to have overheated currently. Nothing beats politics on a fan site

Barbel

Welcome to my world, Loeff.

Loeffelholz

superado wrote:

Revolver66 wrote:

If the Bond series hasn't made villains out of Nixon and Bush Jnr then Trump should be no different. Sure his persona is more outrageous, but so what? The series would compromise it's integrity and credibility by attempting a heavy handed social commentary/political statement of the day with a Trump inspired Bond 25. It's not really something I would wish them to pursue

Trump bashing has become so much a mainstay for network and cable TV, as it were the bread and circuses of the masses, a fad like twerking that has such a wide appeal, but one which I’d leave to the Whoopie Goldbergs and Jimmy Kimmels of the world. Staying clear of these is what keeps the series a class act. It’s only when it delved into whatever was trending did any of its classiness loose any of its luster.

Quite agree {[]

Loeffelholz

Barbel wrote:

Welcome to my world, Loeff.

I used to want your job. But I've had the cure

Barbel

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