UpFront

Who is the real Donald Trump?

We speak to a panel of Trump biographers, authors and journalists to discover what motivates him and his supporters.

Donald Trump’s popularity has surprised those on all sides of the political spectrum. The self-proclaimed billionaire businessman turned reality TV star turned presidential candidate has captured and polarised the public in equal measure.

But with the US presidential election less than two months away, what do we actually know about the Republican nominee? And why has he become so popular?

In a special UpFront, we speak to biographers who’ve spent time with Donald Trump and to authors and journalists who have written extensively about the Republican presidential hopeful and his supporters. And in the Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan also challenges the common notion that the Republican presidential candidate is more dove than hawk.

Joining UpFront:

Gwenda Blair, author of The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire

David Cay Johnston, award-winning journalist and author of The Making of Donald Trump

McKay Coppins, senior political writer at BuzzFeed and author of The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party’s Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House

J D Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, and member of the Republican Party.

Andra Gillespie, associate professor of politics at Emory University and specialist on race relations and civil rights.

In this US election season, UpFront will also examine the Democratic Party candidate, Hillary Clinton.

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