A Storm Foretold (BBC Four) gives us front row seats for the entire build-up to the January 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC. The ringmaster at the podium may have been Donald Trump, but the éminence grise behind it all is this documentary’s subject, Roger Stone.
A devious lobbyist of long standing (indeed, Stone describes himself as “a dirty trickster”), Stone was one of the chief strategists behind Trump’s 2016 election, and narrowly avoided 40 months of jail time – thanks to Trump commuting the sentence – for his role in Russia’s meddling.
How Danish film-maker Christoffer Guldbrandsen persuaded this infamously private man to give him such access, from 2018 until the very last day of Trump’s presidency, is one of the film’s most impressive mysteries. Stone clearly expects some kind of back end – midway through he asks Gulbrandsen what financial gain will come to him if he continues with the film – but is also enough of an egomaniac to assume that he will end up controlling the narrative. What mesmerises in the closing stretch is watching him fail to control it whatsoever.
The white-haired Svengali puts up a front of absolute sangfroid: mocking, self-assured, chomping on vast cigars, and boasting of being the one man able to manipulate Trump over the years without him knowing. Stone’s favourite tipple – a silver martini, minus the olive – is a recipe adapted from his great hero, Richard Nixon. Bridging the gap between Nixon and Trump in US politics, Stone clings to a credo of “admit nothing, deny everything” and refuses with stunning braggadocio to accept any truth he can’t count as a win.
He was already preparing to declare electoral fraud in the event of Trump losing in 2016. He coined the phrase “Stop the Steal” preemptively, before it was turned into a mantra by aggrieved voters four years later. Both times, it was presumed that any election result that went to the Democrats would need to be categorically in dispute – with Stone well prepared in the event of Biden prevailing to fan the flames of a dangerous, undemocratic coup.
When the barriers were overturned and the Capitol’s steps stormed, the film puts us right there in Washington with Stone, nursing his wounds in a hotel room, after being stood down from a scheduled public address by Trump’s minions. He pecks at his phone with outstretched fingers, his busy lower jaw starting to grind and agitate.
From here to the end, Guldbrandsen captures Stone boiling with impotent rage, first at the perceived snub, then Trump’s effrontery at parroting his slogans, and finally at the waiting game of expecting amnesty as the clock ticks down on the administration. In real time, we witness an unhinged volte face: Stone turns against Trump, demanding impeachment for what he deems an unthinkable betrayal.
It doesn’t shock us that an affiliation founded on peddling lies turns out to be this fragile: Stone’s loyalty to Trump only extends as far as self-interest will allow it, and vice versa. Spying backstage on the machinations of Trump’s inner circle, the film alleges a level of corruption so predictable it’s almost cartoonish. The disregard for fundamental principles of democracy is entrenched enough that if November doesn’t go Trump’s way, America will surely have to brace itself.
A Storm Foretold is on BBC Four tonight at 9pm; and on BBC iPlayer now
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