How Hot Fuzz Predicted Donald Trump's Presidency
"Whatever the cost, we will make Sandford great again..."
One week after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, Edgar Wright posted a single picture on Twitter: Jim Broadbent's character from Hot Fuzz with the caption "And whatever the cost, we would make Sandford great again...". Wright appeared to have predicted Trump's rise to power 11 years earlier in his second chapter of the Cornetto Trilogy, or perhaps, at the very least, inspired that chilling catchphrase that won Trump the most powerful office in the world: "we will make America great again".
Hot Fuzz seems to have hit the nail on the head when predicting Trump's rise to power as it shows the idyllic white conservative village of Sandford, Trump's perfect America, which is ruled over by Broadbent's Frank Butterman, the orange man himself. Butterman is a man after Trump's heart after all: a maniacal totalitarian leader who silences any dissenting voices, spews anti-immigrant sentiment and has an overall aim to restore his community to a vague, long-lost time of greatness.
Anyone who crosses Butterman for whatever trivial or petty reason meets a perilous end. Eve Draper is killed because of her annoying laugh, Martin Blower is murdered because he is a terrible actor and Leslie Tiller happens to trip and fall on her own sheers because she tries to move away from Sandford. This has more than a hint of Trump with his constant dismissal of anyone who disagrees with his status quo, whether that's his own cabinet (Bannon, Spicer etc) or his decision to fire FBI director, James Comey, who posed a threat to his authority.
Trump's allegedly xenophobic drive can also be seen in Hot Fuzz as Frank Butterman shows his disgust towards the "gypsy scum" and "crusty jugglers" who turned his model village into a chaotic wasteland. As Nicholas Angel, the voice of the liberal elite, attempts to expose his oppressive cabinet (the Neighbourhood Watch), Butterman exclaims "You're not seriously going to believe this man, are you? He isn't even from around here!" perfectly encapsulating this current anti-immigrant sentiment that Trump thrives on.
All the while through this period of unrest, the justification remains the same: "for the greater good" which is repeatedly mumbled back to Butterman by a community that has been brainwashed by this unhinged dictator into believing that their dark deeds are going to benefit the people. Like Butterman, Trump has gained an unquestioning retaliation of voices echoing his sentiment, no matter how extreme, all under the pretence of bettering the country but in reality just benefiting himself.
The lovely Joyce Cooper calls out this Trumpian reality that Hot Fuzz exists in right at the start of the film: "Fascist! System of government categorised by extreme dictatorship. Seven across". Well, as Angel notes, "It's Fascism" but close enough.