Trump as Jimmy Stewart: “A guy like me should never be allowed to get in here in the first place.”

From a Wall Street Journal column, “Capra Could Cast Jimmy Stewart as Trump,” by Gregg Opelka. a musical theater composer-lyricist.

“He reminds me of the guy in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” Sen. Kamala Harris said of President Trump in last month’s debate. “When you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude.” Mr. Trump’s recent tweet touting his “great and unmatched wisdom” likewise called to mind “Oz the Great and Powerful.” Yet a better comparison might be drawn to the title character in another 1939 classic, Frank Capra’s smart political satire “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. . . .

Mr. Trump is a born disrupter. Mr. Smith has disrupter status thrust upon him but comes to relish it no less. Mr. Trump rails endlessly about the press’s distortion of his record. When Mr. Smith’s young Boy Rangers ride bicycles to his rescue, their newspapers—the only ones not on the payroll of corrupt tycoons and politicians—are confiscated. The radio stations are also all on the take. The media controls the narrative; the public is kept in the dark.

Reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s frequent “I’m not a politician” disclaimer, an all but broken, filibuster-weary Jefferson Smith acknowledges his outsider status to his fellow senators in a climactic scene: “A guy like me should never be allowed to get in here in the first place.” But he was. And despite all efforts to stop him, so was Mr. Trump.