Airdate: The Trump Show

Next week Nine premieres The Trump Show, a 3 part series which looks at how a Reality TV star and smart talking businessman turned the political world upside down.

This screens in the UK on Friday.

This episode gives us a front row seat to the first 18 months, as key players including Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, Omarosa Manigault Newman and Anthony Scaramucci take us behind the scenes of this extraordinary presidency.

In November 2016 Trump unexpectedly wins the US election. He faces a change of lifestyle as he moves into the White House and finds himself confronted with a whole new set of rules. Trump sends out Sean Spicer to bat for him over reports of disappointing inauguration attendance figures, in an episode which establishes a fraught new relationship with the press.

From this moment, Trump’s relationship with his audience takes centre stage. He downgrades White House briefings, and instead talks directly to the public through Twitter. His use of emotive, repetitive phrases – from ‘fake news’ to ‘fire and fury’ – shows an instinct to connect with the American public in a completely new way.

Factions in the White House compete for Trump’s attentions as he finds his feet, with discord between Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, and Sean Spicer and Anthony Scaramucci played out in public. Washington life begins to resemble a soap opera, and the cameras are poised to capture it all.

Trump hits the world stage, displaying showmanship and instincts for populist entertainment honed over years in the worlds of business and reality TV. Facing a broad range of challenges, from violence in Charlottesville to historic encounters with Kim Jong Un, Trump develops the guiding principles of his presidency, proving resistant to all attempts to change or mould his unique character.

Trump’s presentational style, his creation of new narratives around the very idea of truth, and his refusal to bend to Washington etiquette is changing the political landscape – perhaps forever.

8:40pm Tuesday on Nine.