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Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics
Mike Sheridan
Donald Trump has long been debating whether or not to run again for President of the United States.
The 45th commander-in-chief appears to be weighing up his options for 2024 with the rumour mill going into overdrive after he hinted at his intentions during a recent rally in Alaska.
Now, someone with a unique insight into Trump’s world has made an intriguing prediction about his political intentions.
“I think he'll declare that he's running. I don't think he'll end up running,” British documentary maker Alex Holder tells UNILAD.
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“My reasoning for that is over the course of Donald Trump's life, when he fails, he pivots to something else. He doesn't normally do the same thing again.”
Holder is the man behind Unprecedented, a three-part series on Trump and his children.
He was introduced to the Trump family by a mutual acquaintance ahead of the 2020 election and pitched what was supposed to be a behind-the-scenes look at another victorious presidential campaign.
Because, as Holder says, the Trumps firmly believed they would beat Joe Biden, despite every poll saying otherwise in the run-up to the election.
Holder's life has changed dramatically in a very short space of time. When word grew of a documentary containing footage of the Trump family in the aftermath of the election – which Trump still insists he won – he was subpoenaed by Congress to testify and reveal the footage as part of the 6 January hearings and catapulted to the global spotlight.
Making the documentary granted Holder unique insights into the inner workings of the Trump family.
When Holder finally made it into the White House to begin filming, he had no idea what to expect.
“The closest thing I had to compare my experiences to was The West Wing," he says. But his initial observations were telling. “The key thing I noticed at the time that was interesting was that President Trump's people around him were terrified of him.
“There's a respect that the position holds, but this was more than respect. It was a very uncomfortable, tense feeling when I saw the people around him interact with him.”
Trump famously lost his Twitter account after the social media platform deemed tweets written in the wake of the 6 January insurrection a breach of its policy.
“That is one of the moments I saw Trump angriest and the most depressed - the lack of social media,” Holder says.
Trump talks about this on camera and calls Twitter bosses “thugs” for removing him.
Those who have watched Unprecedented may notice a subtle nod in the opening credits to the multi-award-winning HBO series Succession, which is rumoured to be partly inspired by Trump and his children Ivanka, Don Jnr, and Eric Trump.
The siblings are the focus of the series, with Holder at one point showing Trump footage of each of his kids campaigning for him and getting his opinion on their strengths. “They all have their own base,” Trump says before quickly taking credit for their following, adding that it's all actually part of his base, really.
Holder has nonetheless been accused of ‘humanising’ the Trump children, which he finds laughable as ‘they are human’.
“Their world view is really centered around one thing - it's all about Trump, it's all about the brand.”
In one scene, we see Don Jnr, the most enthusiastic about taking over his father's political career, interview Donald Trump. His question? “Who is your favourite kid, and why is it Ivanka?”
Do Trump's children have the kind of relationship where they can joke with their father like this?
Holder isn't so sure. “You see Don's face after the joke, and he has this, like nervous laughter to ribbing his dad which I thought was quite interesting.”
All three episodes of Unprecedented are on Discovery Plus now