Roger Stone Makes Surprise Tribeca Appearance, Says He Talks to Trump ‘From Time to Time’
Roger Stone wasn’t part of the Q&A following the world premiere of the new documentary “Get Me Roger Stone” at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, but the infamous political consultant did sneak into the screening shortly after it began and took one question from his seat after it was over.
Asked if he still advises president Donald Trump, Stone replied that he talks to Trump “from time to time,” adding, “I certainly wouldn’t divulge the content of those conversations or they would end. The president needs to be able to get advice and not have it end up on the front page of The New York Times.”
A Netflix original documentary directed by Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme, “Get Me Roger Stone” was produced over the course of more that five years and chronicles Stone’s early attempts to get Trump to run for office back in the late 1980s all the way through his work on Trump’s campaign. At the screening, Stone downplayed his role in getting Trump elected, as he always does. “I was merely involved,” he said.
Though Pehme stated that Trump is more responsible for getting himself elected than any other individual, the co-director added that Stone deserves more credit for Trump’s victory than anyone else, aside from Trump himself. “He created the conditions that would enable the Trump presidency to succeed,” Pehme said, referring to the way Stone and others revolutionized the world of political consulting with a new form of media manipulation and spreading of misinformation.
Though none of the filmmakers expected Trump to win, they acknowledged that after he did, the significance of the movie became larger than any of them had expected.
“As is often the case, unfortunately, what is terrible for the country is great for documentary filmmakers,” said executice producer Blair Foster. “We thought, okay this is going to be a very interesting film. It quickly becomes a film that I think answers, how did Donald Trump become our president. It doesn’t fully answer that but certainly provides a lot of answers.”
Trump was among the many political figures interviewed in the film — though the interview took place before he ran for president — and when the filmmakers were asked how they expect Trump to respond if and when he sees the movie, Pehme replied, “We hope he’ll tweet about it as much as possible.”
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