Academy Award-Winning Director Blasts Legal Witch Hunts Against Trump: ‘A New Kind Of Warfare’

Critically acclaimed director Oliver Stone referred to the ongoing “lawfare” against former President Donald Trump as a “new form of warfare” that has potential to permanently destroy the United States.

The “Platoon” and “JFK” director sat down with Variety to discuss his new documentary film “Lula,” which documents the legal troubles faced by Brazil’s far-left president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival. Stone’s film seeks to draw comparisons to the corruption investigation into Lula that ultimately led to his imprisonment for nearly two years and those of former President Trump.

“The charges on both sides of the Trump-Biden election are pretty wild — that Biden is corrupt and Trump is corrupt,” Stone told Variety. “It’s a new form of warfare. It’s called lawfare. And that’s what they’re using against Trump. And I think there’s interesting parallels here in America, as well as all over the world, you’re seeing this kind of behavior. [Trump’s] got four trials and some of these charges, whether you’re for him or against him, they are minor.”

Stone is no fan of Trump’s policies and has critiqued him on multiple occasions. He once referred to the former president as a “mad King Lear” whose ego is dangerous for the country.

Still, the veteran filmmaker believes that the frivolous criminal cases launched against Trump just before the election highlight America’s corrupt political system.

“Corruption is a way of life,” he said. It goes back to the Greeks, the Romans, and before that the Babylonians, There’s corruption all through history, so let’s not be Pollyannas about it and think we’re ‘America the clean’ and we’re better than anybody else. That’s such bullsh**.”

Stone went on to conclude that money is the driving force behind corruption in Washington.

““If you’re a poor man or a middle-class man it’s very hard to run for office in the United States, unless you have money and corporate sponsors. Money controls politics in the United States. If you go to European countries, you’ll find that their elections are very mandated. The British elections are very low cost, or they used to be until recently,” he said.

“In France, they have election rules. And we need that in the United States. Let’s get the money out of the politics.”