Trump was in a bad mood and experienced ‘real withdrawal’ after being barred from Twitter, says filmmaker who was with him at the time
- Trump was in a bad mood and went through "real withdrawal" when Twitter banned him.
- That's according to a filmmaker who was with him at the time after getting access to Trump and his family.
Former President Donald Trump was in a bad mood and went through "real withdrawal" after he was banned from Twitter, a filmmaker who was with him when he was blocked said.
Alex Holder, a documentary filmmaker, was given access to Trump and his family and spent months interviewing them as he documented the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath.
Holder said on The Bulwark Podcast in an episode released on Tuesday that when he interviewed Trump in Mar-a-Lago in March 2021 he "looked terrible, he had put on a lot of weight, he was incredibly depressed."
"The reason for all of that was he was going through a real withdrawal from not being able to use Twitter, or any social media. 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. It was remarkable. "
The Mar-a-Lago interview was the second of three times that Holder said he interviewed Trump.
Trump was known for tweeting multiple times a day during his presidency, often announcing sudden new shifts in policy on the platform or attacking his critics and political foes.
But Trump was banned in January 8, after his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6 and tried to stop Trump's election loss from being certified.
As the riot took place, posted a video on Twitter where he repeated his baseless lies claiming voter fraud and told the rioters, "Go home. We love you; you're very special." Twitter said Trump was banned because of a risk he could incite more violence.
Trump has since formed his own social media network, Truth Social, which emulates many features of Twitter such as the ability to reshare posts from other users.
Trump's social media platform calls it "ReTruthing" instead of "retweeting."