This plot was done more than once during the Cold War: the evil Commies put their agent into the ultimate position to sabotage the West: the White House. Either the President is replaced by an identical imposter, or a deep-cover mole spends years ascending the stairs of power, or the President is turned into their puppet via mind control. How many different examples of this are there?
Wow, the crazy things Hollywood comes up with…
It turns out that real life is so much dumber than anyone expected it to be.
In Allen Drury’s series that starts with “Advise and Consent” the Soviets encourage the rise of a man who isn’t an agent but who is weak enough to crumble when faced with any pressure from them
In Trotsky’s Run the Soviets have put an actual agent into the Oval Office - but unfortunately, due to the pressures of the masquerade, he’s snapped, and believes himself to be Trotsky - and still holds a grudge against the heirs of Stalin
Although it’s the Pentagon rather than the White House, that’s the plot of No Way Out.
On a similar note as the OP:
The President Evil in TVTropes.
On the entry for Films:
In G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Zartan manages to disguise himself and take the place of the President.
In G.I. Joe: Retaliation, he even puts Cobra banners on the White House, since Cobra is now the “official” ruler of America.
The Second Lady had a Soviet operative in the White House as the president…
…’s wife.
The example I had in mind when I started the thread but couldn’t find earlier (I kept thinking it was The Twilight Zone, it was actually The Outer Limits): The Hundred Days of the Dragon - Wikipedia
And The Manchurian Candidate featured the maneuvering-into-power version (attempted).
The alternative history short story book *Battle of the Bulge: Hitler’s Alternate Scenarios * has a scenario where the Battle of the Bulge is a 100% success and Eisenhower getting killed, Allied troops pushed to the coast and cut-off, and Roosevelt having a heart attack Christmas Day and dying as a result.
There’s a succession crisis between still Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Vice President elect Harry S Truman that results in Wallace declaring himself President and basically launching a Pro-Communist coup (as he’s secretly a Soviet agent) in Washington DC replacing everybody loyal to Truman with Socialists and Progressives including Alger Hiss and then a mini-Civil War erupts in DC.
In Tom Clancy’s novel Executive Orders, a deep-cover Iranian (not Red) mole works his way up the Secret Service ladder and finally gets a chance to whack President Jack Ryan, the Director of the CIA, and the National Security Adviser right in the Oval Office. (Needless to say, his efforts come to naught.)
I think a lot about what the Soviet deep cover agents must think of Trump. Like they completely abandoned everything that made them who they are, spent decades meticulous building up a secret identity in the West, going to incredible lengths and making huge sacrifices to keep their true identity secret. Just so they could secretly recruit a few low level agents in America. Then their coworkers who never did any of that, recruit the president of the United States in plain view of the world, without so much as a dead drop or cover story.
Oh and then the crowning indignity, he goes and puts the most secret documents in America, that you’d have literally died for, in the toilet at Mar Lago! Your god-damned jammy arsed colleague just needed to swan in there, buy a Pina Colada, go for a slash, and there they were! You spent a whole year, rain and shine, hanging around dead drops in remote Virginia back roads to get the toilet roll orders for a nuclear submarine base, and he just needed to go to the god-damned bathroom at a Florida country club to get he crown jewels! FFS!
I’d like to see a sequel to The Americans where they just rant about this
Wallace might have written that just so he could put in those sex scenes.
Silly Moslem! You can’t whack a guy who’s wearing plot armor!
FBI agent Noah Emmerich, recently fired for being too tall or not saying a loyalty oath loud enough, could join them having a big old whinge.
Okay. I’m not too proud to admit it. I laughed.
Plot: Reds sneak a man into the Oval Office
There’s no limit to what Pete Rose will do to get into the Hall of Fame.