British filmmaker Alex Holder said he was "very scared" of former Republican President Donald Trump when he interviewed him for the documentary Unprecedented, which covers the last six weeks of Trump's presidency.
Most notably, Holder cited the events of January 6, 2021—the day a White nationalist-led mob of Trump's supporters attacked the United States Capitol on the false premise the 2020 general election was stolen.
The first time Holder interviewed Trump was on December 7, 2020, mere days after former Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press the Department of Justice (DOJ) had not uncovered any evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Things unraveled from there.
A trailer for Unprecedented, which premiered July 10 on Discovery+, is included below.
According to testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, who was then an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and spoke to the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the events of January 6 earlier this summer, Trump was so angry about Barr's interview and the blow to his efforts to overturn the election results, that he threw his plate of food at the wall, smearing it with ketchup.
In an interview with The Bulwark Podcast, Holder said he "never saw any ketchup on any walls or tablecloths being pulled" but he "could believe it happened."
He added:
“In the White House, when he came in, he was furious. And for lack of a better word, powerful. He was furious. And I was very scared.”
“I mean, that was definitely the feeling I got after that interview."
“I was like, the sh*t is gonna hit the fan. This is going to be a bad next few weeks. I mean, there was no question he was gonna go full on.”
Holder interviewed Trump again in March 2021 and recalled Trump was reeling from having been banned from Twitter for inciting the insurrection and he "looked terrible."
He said:
“He looked terrible, he’d put on a lot of weight. He was incredibly depressed."
“And a little behind the scenes secret: The reason for all of that was because he was going through a real withdrawal from not being able to use Twitter."
"Yeah, I promise. I mean, that’s literally what his closest aide said to me. He was in the most terrible foul mood because he couldn’t use social media.”
No one was surprised by Holder's revelations, but they left an impression just the same.
\u201cEveryone needs to listen to @Timodc chat with @alexjholder. It\u2019s both funny and terrifying. Like how Trump repeatedly walks into the dining room at Mar-a-Lago just for the applause! And how Ivanka is just like her father when the cameras aren\u2019t rolling.\u201d— NatSecJD \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@NatSecJD \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1661965655
\u201cHe should go through 1000 times the suffering, anxiety, & tumult that he put the American people, and quite frankly the entire world, through. Prison can\u2019t come soon enough.\n#TRE45ON \n#LockHimUpAlready\u201d— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83d\udc7dBillie Eyelashes\ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (aka GweedZ) (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83d\udc7dBillie Eyelashes\ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (aka GweedZ)) 1661976569
\u201cAs Unto A Child, Trump Needed An Adult To Monitor And Limit His Time On Social Media.\u201d— DemocracyWW (@DemocracyWW) 1661977926
\u201cWe knew something was up because he bullied Twitter, whined and cried about his \u201crights,\u201d and then made his own fake fascist Twitter.\u201d— Brooke \ud83c\udf0a (@Brooke \ud83c\udf0a) 1661947344
\u201cThis was telling.\n\nTrump was then and is now\nunhinged.\u201d— Just can't stay silent (@Just can't stay silent) 1661963210
\u201cthis is actually a whitepill because it means Trump will go back to posting on twitter if he actually gets his account back.\u201d— Wurtweakle (@Wurtweakle) 1661969375
\u201cGeez: I wonder what will happen to Trump when Truth Social goes under!\n\nhttps://t.co/VuFNzoYYeb\u201d— INDICT TRUMP & CODIFY ROE! (@INDICT TRUMP & CODIFY ROE!) 1661966574
\u201cTFG went through withdrawals after Twitter quit him. I guess we are really going to be in for it when his TruthSocial is dead and buried.\n\nDonald Trump "put on a lot of weight" after losing Twitter\u2014Alex Holder https://t.co/ONFp629jwB\u201d— \ud83c\udf0aSusieTX (@\ud83c\udf0aSusieTX) 1661964035
Unprecedented includes previously unreleased footage of the Trump family on the campaign trail and their reactions to the outcome of the 2020 election which lost by a substantial margin.
The Trumps did not request contractual right of control.
The documentary is said to offer intimate interviews with Trump, his family members and others who were in the White House during the Trump presidency's final weeks.
Holder said he wanted to find out who the Trumps were by way of the re-election campaign. He added he ended up being fascinated by their "Succession-type vibe," referring to the Emmy Award-winning HBO series about the dysfunctional owners of a global media and entertainment conglomerate who are fighting for control of the company amid uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch.
