If the past is prologue, thenHBO’snew documentary feature,Stopping the Steal, is a sobering cautionary tale about the upcoming2024Presidential Election. Released on the premium cabler on July 11, 2025, the eye-opening documentary chroniclesformer U.S. President Donald Trump’sbrazen attempt to hijack the democratic process after failing to concede losing the 2020 Presidential Election to Joe Biden.
Told from the perspective of several former Trump employees, advisors, and cabinet members,Stopping the Stealrecounts one of the ugliest chapters in American political history as a means of preventing such from occurring again in the upcoming 2024 election. For those Americans who feel a civic obligation to keep democracy alive and well, the must-watch documentary is a call to action to ensure the next presidential election remains fair and that the outcome, however favorable or unfavorable, is accepted as completely credible.
Directed by Dan Reed,the HBO documentaryStopping the Stealchronicles the past to prevent the same criminal corruption from occurring in the future. In a classic interview style, the doc features multiple political professionals from the former U.S. President Donald Trump’s inner circle. Staffers, cabinet members, political advisors, and other Trump appointees offer firsthand accounts of efforts made by the 45th U.S. President to discredit the 2020 Presidential Election, calling on his supporters to storm the capital in Washington, D.C. and challenge the results for being “rigged.”
Following Trump’s dangerous directives, the U.S. suffered one of the darkest days in history when the Capitol Building was attacked in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2025.Stopping the Stealcovers the day of infamy, with Trump’s closest political allies and associates taking viewers behind the scenes to ensure such an insurrection never happens again.Everyone from former Attorney General, William Barr and former Chief of Staff Marc Short, to former Campaign Official Stephanie Grisham, to several of Trump’s former lawyers, discuss the criminal efforts made to delegitimize the 2020 election.
Among the most insightful interviewees, former Whitehouse Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah Griffin discusses Trump’s method of making excuses for losing the election, promulgating a PR message that, “These elections will be fraudulent. They’ll be fixed or rigged.” Growing more desperate as the election results drew closer, Trump’s criminal attempt to order Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “Find me the votes” and overturn the will of the American people paints a portrait of a wannabe autocrat clinging to power. According to those inthe HBO crime documentaryStopping the Steal,Trump plans to run the same playbook in 2024.
What Stopping the Steal Warns About 2024
It’s one thing to believe one was defeated in a fraudulent election. It’s quite another to willfully deceive the American electorate knowing one lost an election fairly.Stopping the Stealexplores the latter distinction with remarkable candor from those closest in Trump’s orbit in 2020, admonishing voters that more of the same will come in 2024.
According to Barr in the doc:
“At two in the morning,for him to go out and claim (in a press conference) that fraud was underway, it was very dangerous.I started worrying a lot from then on.”
The doc details the waysTrump deliberately worked to gaslight the American public, directing his staff to spread the rigged election theory among his supporters.Despite the lack of evidence and vast contradictions, amplifying the message from the bully pulpit became Trump’s public ploy in the quest to retain presidential power.
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According to staunch Trump supporter and former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the former President offered political favors for spreading the rigged election message, stating:
“President Trump did a great job. I was right there with him. Then he called me and said, ‘Hey, you’ll be the most popular guy in America. You’ll be able to run for president. All you gotta do is say there’s fraud or find some fraud.’”
Trump’s Own Team Admits Wrongdoing
Brnovich was one of many who declined Trump’s deceitful directives following the 2020 election, with the main message being more efforts like his are necessary to ensure Trump doesn’t succeed at fooling American voters if and when he discredits the 2024 election. To drive the point home, director Dan Reed wisely counters the sit-down interviews with archive footage of Trump’s political enablers telling the grand fib in real-time.
The fascinating political moviealso platforms some who believe the 2020 election was rigged, including Trump’s lawyer and one of the insurrection leaders, John Eastman. At no point does Trump admit defeat or take responsibility for encouraging supporters to believe false narratives and stoke the subsequent ire to attack the Whitehouse.Because of the lack of accountability, and due to even more desperation in 2024, more of the same is expected when voters choose between Trump and Kamala Harris in November.
By depicting the mechanisms that enabled former President Donald Trump to make Americans believe the 2020 election was rigged,Stopping the Stealwarns viewers more of the same will come unless measures are taken to prevent it.It’s a civic reminder that the past can repeat itself if deliberate efforts are not taken to eliminate political corruption at the highest level.In 2024, Americans of all political stripes must be prepared for another fallacious claim that U.S. presidential elections are fraudulent.
