Twenty-seven years ago, when Donald Trump was riding high, some filmmakers started to make a documentary film about him.
Twenty-five years ago, when Trump was on the ropes, they finished "Trump: What's the Deal?"
No one saw it.
Donald Trump went after the very rich --- much richer than Trump --- mogul who had financed the film. He threatened to sue. Made personal attacks. The mogul decided he didn't need the trouble. Not that anything the mogul decided really mattered --- no broadcaster would touch the film.
Score one for Trump.
Twenty-five years later, score one for the filmmakers --- 'Trump: What's the Deal?" is on the web.
What will you see? Trump working with the mob in Atlantic City, intimidating tenants, hiring illegal immigrant labor, verbally assaulting his family and underlings, trying to move a Florida airport because jets flew directly over his home... the list goes on and on.
Perhaps most interesting for a 2016 viewer, the film shows Trump to be the opposite of a small-government conservative. He got his start with his father's money and political connections, and he made money the same way his father did: on the backs of taxpayers. And it shows how, even in 1991, Trump hadn't made as much money as he said he had.
I wrote the script for the documentary. And, this year, I wrote --- well, it wrote itself --- the tag line for the film: "The new Trump. The old Trump. The same Trump."
If he could, Donald Trump would kill this film again. But that's not happening.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the real Donald Trump.