When season five of House Of Cards dropped on Netflix, it was easy to be underwhelmed by Frank Underwood’s Presidential nasty streak. Yes yes, so he’s into killing dogs, encouraging terrorism to keep America afraid and widdling on his own father’s grave, but here in real-life 2017 Donald Trump just pulled out of the Paris climate accord, quite possibly condemning the entire planet to fiery damnation – checkmate, Spacey. The most abominable acts the script-writers of Netflix’s political phenomenon can come up with for Frank this year will be but a stroked kitten compared to what Trump’s up to, but let’s not forget those times that Underwood proved himself more evil than the current POTUS.

The time Frank destroyed Peter Russo

Whatever Trump might or might not have said to ex-FBI chief Comey in the privacy of their own meeting room, he didn’t manipulate his political ambitions, turn him into a drug addict and ultimately murder him in a staged suicide, as Frank did to wannabe governor Peter Russo early on in his rise.  

The time he murdered Zoe Barnes

Trump might have bragged about openly molesting women, but Frank went one seedier when he started an affair with eager reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) and then, as she began to get close enough to expose him for Russo’s murder, hoofed her in front of a subway train.

The time he got Lucas Goodwin locked up for a decade

Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer is famed for hiding in bushes to escape media questions, barring publications from press briefings and treating the press like kindergarten kids, but his treatment of the media is still some way nicer than Underwood's. When Zoe’s boss Goodwin tried to carry on her investigation into Underwood’s nefarious activities, Frank organises a tricksy sting whereby he was set up for hacking into the AT&T database and flung in jail for ten years. 

The time he unseated President Walker

For all his faults, at least Trump reached the Presidency fair and square, merely by playing on the feelings of people who were both a) angry at the establishment for letting them down and b) unable to realise that Trump was the establishment. Frank, on the other hand, weaselled his way into the White House by undermining President Walker’s marriage and embroiling him in scandal over the Tusk affair. Sneaky, sneaky.

The time Frank wanted to set fire to the Russian President

Trump’s alleged connections to Russia are as yet unclear, but you can bet he doesn’t have any strong urge to set Vladimir Putin alight. Our Frank did, though, when President Petrov (The Killing's Lars Mikkelsen) arrives for a state visit, gets everyone hammered on vodka and cops off with Frank’s wife. "I'd push him down the stairs and light his broken body on fire just to watch it burn, if it wouldn't start a world war," Frank says. Which, in international relations terms, is a little worse than shoving the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way at a photo call.

Read more about House Of Cards Season 5 on our House Of Cards season 5 blog