In a clip shared by the January 6 documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, the former president can be seen fussing over a glass of water in the camera frame.
Mr Holder, the maker of ‘Unprecedented’ — a three-part documentary about the final months of the Trump presidency — tweeted a clip from it and wrote: “The Trumps did not have editorial control. Full stop.”
Unprecedented is slated to be released this summer and has been bought by Discovery Plus.
In fact, Mr Holder’s documentary footage has been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot of last year.
The clip shows Mr Trump checking himself in the frame after he takes a seat for the interview. Then goes: “I don’t think you want to have the water in the picture. You can take it. Yeah.”
Addressing staff, he says: “Put it over there, Nick.”
The man comes over and removes the table from his side on which the glass was kept.
A few seconds later, after checking the framing again, the former president says: “You know what you can do Nick, put the table back. Because it [the frame] is missing something. And put the water on the table without the thing on top over” referring to the white lid covering the glass.
The man puts the table back. And keeps the glass of water over a white napkin. This time, there is no lid.
Mr Trump looks at the framing and says: “How’s that look?” He removes the napkin that was placed beneath the glass of water. And hands it to a staff member.
Finally, when he looks happy with the placement of the glass of water, the former president says: “Right. Let’s go.”
Mr Holder, meanwhile, was requested by the select House committee for an interview and he has emerged as a key witness to the hearings. The British filmmaker agreed to it.
“As a British filmmaker, I had no agenda coming into this,” he said in a statement. “We simply wanted to better understand who the Trumps were and what motivated them to hold onto power so desperately.”
He has done multiple one-on-one interviews not only with the former president but also with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Eric Trump.
The Los Angeles-based filmmaker continued: “When we began this project in September 2020, we could have never predicted that our work would one day be subpoenaed by Congress.”
