Produced by the investigative journalism program Frontline on PBS, it charts how the two major political parties became increasingly adversarial to each other due to factors of race, media, and misinformation, from the 2008 presidential election to the presidency of Donald Trump.
On December 20, 2019, Frontline announced that it will release the two-part television documentary titled America's Great Divide: From Obama to Trump on January 13 and 14, 2020, which will comprehensively examine "the growth of a toxic political environment that has paralyzed Washington and dramatically deepened the gulf between Americans", and provide context for the election year of 2020.
[3] Director Michael Kirk intended for the film to highlight the irony in Obama's promise to unify the country, "that by the end of his presidency -- he freely admitted and everyone else could see -- that the division was even deeper, even broader, that racism was even more rampant.
[7][8] Brian Lowery of CNN praised America's Great Divide for "admirably" charting in detail the deepening division within the United States through the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, stating that "The sobering takeaway from 'America's Great Divide,' explored at some length in the second half, is whether the nastiness that defines current political discourse is irrevocable.
[9] John Doyle of the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail also commended the documentary for its compelling presentation of the "central threads" which led to the election of Trump, stating that it is "sobering, at times unnerving and often startling.