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1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 84 (from laksa116)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa084.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html","crawl_time":1772961420,"first_indexed_time":1749235394,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,nytimes!www,\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html s443","src_root_hash":"4566504020376537684","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Documentary Series Goes Inside Trump’s Bubble - The New York Times","meta_descriptions":["Advance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Advertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\nAdvance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power.\nPresident-elect Donald J. Trump during the Army-Navy football game in December, with Senator John Thune to the left of him and Speaker Mike Johnson to the right. The documentary filmmaker Justin Wells can be seen in the background, holding up a mobile phone.\nCredit...\nDoug Mills\/The New York Times\nJune 6, 2025\nA few weeks after winning the election, President-elect Donald J. Trump found himself face-to-face with Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a rising star in the Democratic Party, as the two men made their way through the bowels of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., to watch the annual Army-Navy game.\nThe governor greeted him effusively.\n“Mr. President, welcome back to Maryland, sir, welcome back to Maryland!” Mr. Moore said. “Great to see you, great to see you, great to have you back here.”\n“You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Trump observed.\n“We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” the governor added. Then he mentioned the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, which had collapsed that March.\nThis chummy encounter was captured on camera for a documentary series called “Art of the Surge,” now streaming on Fox Nation, which provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. The series gives a sense of how much he is enveloped by people eager to stroke his ego and get in his good graces — including some unexpected figures, according to advance episodes viewed by The New York Times.\nImage\nA still image from video footage of Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland greeting President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024.\nCredit...\nArt of the Surge\nAt one point, inside the V.I.P. box at the football game, Brian Grazer, a top Hollywood producer, gets his photo taken with the president-elect and confides to those in the room that he cast his ballot for the Republican.\nMr. Grazer tells the group that when he told some women he knows that he planned to vote for Mr. Trump, his decision was met with shock — it was almost as if he were “getting canceled.”\n“All the women looked in and go, ‘You mean, you’re not voting for Kamala?’ And I go, ‘I just can’t do that,’” he explains. “And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, ‘Are you voting for\nTrump\n?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ I swear!”\nReached this week by The Times, Mr. Grazer, who produced “Hillbilly Elegy,” the movie based on Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, said that he was at the game because his son attends West Point. Asked what made him want to vote for Mr. Trump, he said: “As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.”\nThis scene in the film also briefly shows Speaker Mike Johnson; Senator John Thune, the incoming majority leader; and Mr. Vance sitting with Mr. Trump in the V.I.P. box to discuss how they can get around a politically difficult vote to raise the debt ceiling once he is in office.\n“The debt ceiling vote doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s not even really a blockade on spending. It never has been.”\nMr. Thune adds, “I’ve been approached by a few Democrats about getting rid of it.”\nMr. Trump nods along, but what he seems most interested in is making sure everyone around him is having a good time. “Bring a couple of Cokes over,” he shouts. “For the guys.”\nA few days later, he would tank a spending bill and demand that Republicans add a debt-limit increase, throwing the negotiations into\ntotal chaos\n.\nThe documentary series was made by the television producer Justin Wells, 42, who once worked as a producer for Tucker Carlson when he was a Fox News host. Mr. Wells was granted an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump over the last year. He spent much of the 2024 campaign filming Mr. Trump and those around him and released that footage on social media during the fall as Season 1 of “Art of the Surge.” He subsequently spent election night by Mr. Trump’s side and stuck around through the transition. More recently, he has been filming inside the West Wing.\n“I make no qualms that it’s friendly to Trump,” Mr. Wells said of the docuseries in an interview this week. “But this is him being more real than usual. The same with his team.” (He said that Mr. Trump’s team had no creative control over the series.)\nThe version of Mr. Trump who appears in the series is a bit different from the one on display in news conferences, onstage at his rallies or on social media. He comes across as more of a foul-mouthed, backslapping party boss with a pragmatic bent.\nIn one scene, Tulsi Gabbard is shown speaking to Mr. Trump as she gets her hair and makeup done before what would be a bruising confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. As strands of her hair are pulled through a flatiron, she tells the president on speakerphone that she is worried some Republicans may go wobbly on her.\n“Todd Young from Indiana, he’s a question mark,” Ms. Gabbard says. “OK, well, you let me know,” Mr. Trump says. “Go and have a good time,” he adds breezily. (Mr. Young voted to confirm her.)\nThe series provides a glimpse of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit who are omnipresent but seldom seen or heard from by the public. That includes\nNatalie Harp\n, the young aide known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.\nIn one scene, she gives a demonstration. “OK, so we’re going to print a copy of ‘The Snake,’” she says, referring to the\nanti-immigration poem\nMr. Trump often reads at rallies. Dumping various pieces of equipment onto a tabletop, she starts to rapidly plug them together, explaining, “It goes faster if you plug in the generator. You don’t need the generator, but I like to do it just in the interest of speed.”\nImage\nNatalie Harp, an aide, is known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.\nCredit...\nArt of the Surge\n“She’s constantly with him,” Mr. Wells said, adding: “The way he often delivers messages to people is, she’ll print stuff, give it to him, he’ll write a note on it with a Sharpie, she’ll take a picture of the printout or screen grab and then text it to the person he wants to reach.”\nThe documentary depicts Mr. Trump surrounded by a constant, rolling circus of unexpected characters. The actor Sylvester Stallone and President Javier Milei of Argentina are shown hitting it off at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club and residence in Florida, as they wait to see Mr. Trump. One of his former wives, Marla Maples, is filmed introducing herself to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s young children. (“I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, Tiffany? I’m the former wife of the president, and it’s so good to see all of you.”)\nMr. Wells films Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump hanging out with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago on election night, when his partnership with Mr. Trump was still in early bloom. “It’s been great to see you all over this,” she tells Mr. Musk. “We really have gratitude. Have you had fun with it?”\nScenes showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk bonding are particularly striking, given their\njarring breakup\non Thursday. One long sequence shows Mr. Trump and his posse traveling to South Texas to watch Mr. Musk launch a rocket. Mr. Trump seems in awe of what Mr. Musk has built as he shows him around the facility.\n“I was around them intimately and closely for so many hours, both when they’re together and independent of each other,” Mr. Wells said. He said he felt that the two billionaires had a “genuine” connection. “Even just watching the way Trump would tap him on the shoulder, it was like he was his nephew, or almost like a son,” he said. “There was a realness to it.”\nSo he said he was just as shocked as anyone, if not more, by how fast they fell out.\n“Frankly,” Mr. Wells said, “I’m mind-blown at what’s transpired.”\nShawn McCreesh\nis a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.\nA version of this article appears in print on\nJune 7, 2025\n, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Bubble of Ingratiation, Streaming for All to See\n.\nOrder Reprints\n|\nToday’s Paper\n|\nSubscribe\nRelated Content\nMore in Politics\nBrenda BazáN\/Associated Press\nThom Bridge\/Independent Record, via Associated Press\nTierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\nEditors’ Picks\nRachel Bujalski for The New York Times\nShutterstock\nTrending in The Times\nAmir Hamja for The New York Times\nBritish War Office\nPhilip Cheung for The New York Times\nNatalie Keyssar for The New York Times\nGetty Images\nAmmar Awad\/Reuters\nDamon Winter\/The New York Times\nLindsey Whitaker\nMagenta Light Studios\nArash Khamooshi for The New York Times\nAdvertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to content](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#site-index)\n\nSearch & Section Navigation\n\nSection Navigation\n\nSearch\n\n[Politics](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/politics)\n\n[Log in](https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2025%252F06%252F06%252Fus%252Fpolitics%252Ftrump-documentary-series.html&asset=masthead)\n\nSunday, March 8, 2026\n\n[Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper)\n\nTrump Administration\n\n- live[War in the Middle East](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2026\/03\/08\/world\/iran-war-trump-israel-lebanon)\n  \n  March 8, 2026, 5:07 a.m. ET9m ago\n- [Job Losses](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/business\/economy\/what-to-know-about-the-report.html)\n- [Kristi Noem Fired](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/us\/politics\/kristi-noem-dhs-timeline.html)\n- [F.D.A Vaccine Regulator Resigning](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/health\/fda-prasad-resigns.html)\n- [Approval Rating](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/polls\/donald-trump-approval-rating-polls.html)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#after-top)\n\nSupported by\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#after-sponsor)\n# Documentary Series Goes Inside Trump’s Bubble\nAdvance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power.\n\n- Share full article\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/06\/06\/multimedia\/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc\/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nPresident-elect Donald J. Trump during the Army-Navy football game in December, with Senator John Thune to the left of him and Speaker Mike Johnson to the right. The documentary filmmaker Justin Wells can be seen in the background, holding up a mobile phone. Credit...Doug Mills\/The New York Times\n\n[![Shawn McCreesh](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/12\/13\/reader-center\/author-shawn-mccreesh\/author-shawn-mccreesh-thumbLarge-v3.png)](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/shawn-mccreesh)\n\nBy [Shawn McCreesh](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/shawn-mccreesh)\n\nReporting from Washington\n\nJune 6, 2025\n\nA few weeks after winning the election, President-elect Donald J. Trump found himself face-to-face with Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a rising star in the Democratic Party, as the two men made their way through the bowels of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., to watch the annual Army-Navy game.\n\nThe governor greeted him effusively.\n\n“Mr. President, welcome back to Maryland, sir, welcome back to Maryland!” Mr. Moore said. “Great to see you, great to see you, great to have you back here.”\n\n“You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Trump observed.\n\n“We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” the governor added. Then he mentioned the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, which had collapsed that March.\n\nThis chummy encounter was captured on camera for a documentary series called “Art of the Surge,” now streaming on Fox Nation, which provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. The series gives a sense of how much he is enveloped by people eager to stroke his ego and get in his good graces — including some unexpected figures, according to advance episodes viewed by The New York Times.\n\nImage\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/00dc-trump-documentary\/00dc-trump-documentary-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nA still image from video footage of Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland greeting President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024.Credit...Art of the Surge\n\nAt one point, inside the V.I.P. box at the football game, Brian Grazer, a top Hollywood producer, gets his photo taken with the president-elect and confides to those in the room that he cast his ballot for the Republican.\n\nMr. Grazer tells the group that when he told some women he knows that he planned to vote for Mr. Trump, his decision was met with shock — it was almost as if he were “getting canceled.”\n\n“All the women looked in and go, ‘You mean, you’re not voting for Kamala?’ And I go, ‘I just can’t do that,’” he explains. “And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, ‘Are you voting for *Trump*?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ I swear!”\n\nReached this week by The Times, Mr. Grazer, who produced “Hillbilly Elegy,” the movie based on Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, said that he was at the game because his son attends West Point. Asked what made him want to vote for Mr. Trump, he said: “As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.”\n\n## Editors’ Picks\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/15\/arts\/15myten-Cannavale\/15myten-Cannavale-thumbLarge.jpg)Bobby Cannavale Loves ‘Heated Rivalry’ and His Bearded Dragon](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/07\/arts\/television\/bobby-cannavale-bearded-dragon-scarpetta.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl\/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)How Older Adults Are Improving Their ‘Sex Span’](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/well\/family\/sex-span-longevity-health.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/08\/multimedia\/08ST-SBB-WEDDINGS-bmhg\/08ST-SBB-WEDDINGS-bmhg-thumbLarge.jpg)Can a Bride Ban a Hairstyle?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/style\/wedding-planning-bridesmaid-hair-rules.html)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#after-pp_edpick)\n\nThis scene in the film also briefly shows Speaker Mike Johnson; Senator John Thune, the incoming majority leader; and Mr. Vance sitting with Mr. Trump in the V.I.P. box to discuss how they can get around a politically difficult vote to raise the debt ceiling once he is in office.\n\n“The debt ceiling vote doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s not even really a blockade on spending. It never has been.”\n\nMr. Thune adds, “I’ve been approached by a few Democrats about getting rid of it.”\n\nMr. Trump nods along, but what he seems most interested in is making sure everyone around him is having a good time. “Bring a couple of Cokes over,” he shouts. “For the guys.”\n\nA few days later, he would tank a spending bill and demand that Republicans add a debt-limit increase, throwing the negotiations into [total chaos](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/18\/us\/politics\/trump-musk-spending-bill.html).\n\nThe documentary series was made by the television producer Justin Wells, 42, who once worked as a producer for Tucker Carlson when he was a Fox News host. Mr. Wells was granted an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump over the last year. He spent much of the 2024 campaign filming Mr. Trump and those around him and released that footage on social media during the fall as Season 1 of “Art of the Surge.” He subsequently spent election night by Mr. Trump’s side and stuck around through the transition. More recently, he has been filming inside the West Wing.\n\n“I make no qualms that it’s friendly to Trump,” Mr. Wells said of the docuseries in an interview this week. “But this is him being more real than usual. The same with his team.” (He said that Mr. Trump’s team had no creative control over the series.)\n\nThe version of Mr. Trump who appears in the series is a bit different from the one on display in news conferences, onstage at his rallies or on social media. He comes across as more of a foul-mouthed, backslapping party boss with a pragmatic bent.\n\nIn one scene, Tulsi Gabbard is shown speaking to Mr. Trump as she gets her hair and makeup done before what would be a bruising confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. As strands of her hair are pulled through a flatiron, she tells the president on speakerphone that she is worried some Republicans may go wobbly on her.\n\n“Todd Young from Indiana, he’s a question mark,” Ms. Gabbard says. “OK, well, you let me know,” Mr. Trump says. “Go and have a good time,” he adds breezily. (Mr. Young voted to confirm her.)\n\nThe series provides a glimpse of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit who are omnipresent but seldom seen or heard from by the public. That includes [Natalie Harp](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/25\/us\/politics\/trump-natalie-harp.html), the young aide known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.\n\nIn one scene, she gives a demonstration. “OK, so we’re going to print a copy of ‘The Snake,’” she says, referring to the [anti-immigration poem](https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/frontline\/article\/watch-donald-trump-and-the-snake\/) Mr. Trump often reads at rallies. Dumping various pieces of equipment onto a tabletop, she starts to rapidly plug them together, explaining, “It goes faster if you plug in the generator. You don’t need the generator, but I like to do it just in the interest of speed.”\n\nImage\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/00dc-trump-documentary-02\/00dc-trump-documentary-02-articleLarge.png?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nNatalie Harp, an aide, is known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.Credit...Art of the Surge\n\n“She’s constantly with him,” Mr. Wells said, adding: “The way he often delivers messages to people is, she’ll print stuff, give it to him, he’ll write a note on it with a Sharpie, she’ll take a picture of the printout or screen grab and then text it to the person he wants to reach.”\n\nThe documentary depicts Mr. Trump surrounded by a constant, rolling circus of unexpected characters. The actor Sylvester Stallone and President Javier Milei of Argentina are shown hitting it off at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club and residence in Florida, as they wait to see Mr. Trump. One of his former wives, Marla Maples, is filmed introducing herself to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s young children. (“I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, Tiffany? I’m the former wife of the president, and it’s so good to see all of you.”)\n\nMr. Wells films Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump hanging out with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago on election night, when his partnership with Mr. Trump was still in early bloom. “It’s been great to see you all over this,” she tells Mr. Musk. “We really have gratitude. Have you had fun with it?”\n\nScenes showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk bonding are particularly striking, given their [jarring breakup](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/05\/us\/politics\/trump-elon-musk-fight.html) on Thursday. One long sequence shows Mr. Trump and his posse traveling to South Texas to watch Mr. Musk launch a rocket. Mr. Trump seems in awe of what Mr. Musk has built as he shows him around the facility.\n\n“I was around them intimately and closely for so many hours, both when they’re together and independent of each other,” Mr. Wells said. He said he felt that the two billionaires had a “genuine” connection. “Even just watching the way Trump would tap him on the shoulder, it was like he was his nephew, or almost like a son,” he said. “There was a realness to it.”\n\nSo he said he was just as shocked as anyone, if not more, by how fast they fell out.\n\n“Frankly,” Mr. Wells said, “I’m mind-blown at what’s transpired.”\n\n[Shawn McCreesh](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/shawn-mccreesh) is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.\n\nA version of this article appears in print on June 7, 2025, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Bubble of Ingratiation, Streaming for All to See. [Order Reprints](https:\/\/nytimes.wrightsmedia.com\/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)\n\nSee more on: [U.S. Politics](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/politics), [Donald Trump](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/spotlight\/donald-trump), [Tulsi Gabbard](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/spotlight\/tulsi-gabbard), [Wes Moore](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/wes-moore)\n\n- Share full article\n\n***\n## The Latest on the Trump Administration\n***\n- **DOGE Used ChatGPT:** Documents reveal how A.I. was [used to cancel](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/07\/arts\/humanities-endowment-doge-trump.html) most previously approved grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with employees from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pulling short grant summaries off the internet and feeding them into the A.I. chatbot.\n- **Weapons Supply:** President Trump insisted that the United States had [no shortage of munitions](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-us-weapons-stocks.html) with which to pummel Iran, even as concern grew about the risk that a monthslong war could deplete American weapons stocks. The administration also bypassed Congress to [sell more than 20,000 bombs to Israel](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/state-department-bomb-sale-israel.html).\n- **Cyberwarfare:** Trump called on private companies to take a [more active role in U.S. cybersecurity](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-cybersecurity-strategy.html), a major shift that raises legal and practical questions about how companies would get involved in the nation’s closely guarded cyberoperations.\n- **Weak Jobs Report:** The president’s economic advisers [insist that any signs of strains are temporary](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/business\/economy\/trump-gas-prices.html), while [Democrats warned](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/business\/economy\/jobs-report-unemployment-democrats-republicans-midterms.html) that [an unexpectedly poor jobs report](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/business\/economy\/what-to-know-about-the-report.html) signaled that the economy could sink into a recession.\n- **Fight With Law Firms:** The Department of Justice [attacked the federal judiciary](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/justice-department-law-firms-executive-orders.html), accusing judges who ruled against the Trump administration of undermining Trump’s authority while continuing to fight a case involving law firms that it had previously signaled it was ready to abandon.\n- **National Security Resources:** Firings, resignations and diversions to the president’s priorities have left [elite counterterrorism and counterintelligence units stretched thin](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-iran-war-doj-dhs-firings.html), current and former officials say. There is widespread concern about the capacity of these units to deal with threats unleashed by Iran.\n***\n**How We Report on the Trump Administration**\n\nHundreds of readers asked about our coverage of the president. Times editors and reporters [responded to some of the most common questions](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/06\/insider\/how-the-new-york-times-reports-on-trump.html).\n\n## Related Content\n### [More in Politics](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/politics)\n- [A Sex Scandal and ‘Mein Kampf’ Give Democrats Hope in West Texas Race](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/texas-democrats-brandon-herrera-youtube.html)\n  \n  ![Brandon Herrera had forced a run-off with the incumbent, the Republican Tony Gonzales, before Mr. Gonzales ended his re-election bid.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06nat-AKguy-tx-kgvl\/06nat-AKguy-tx-kgvl-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Brenda BazáN\/Associated Press\n- [A Sly Political Switcheroo Stuns Montana and Starts a New Senate Fight](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/us\/politics\/steve-daines-montana-senate-alme.html)\n  \n  ![Kurt Alme, who has been serving as the U.S. attorney for Montana, was endorsed by Senator Steve Daines and President Trump to succeed Mr. Daines in a race for what will now be an open seat.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/us\/politics\/pol-montana\/pol-montana-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Thom Bridge\/Independent Record, via Associated Press\n- [From 1994: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-dead.html)\n  \n  ![Mrs. Onassis in an undated photo in New York City.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06WHM-Kennedy-Obit-lwmh\/06WHM-Kennedy-Obit-lwmh-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n- [Kristi Noem Survived Many Crises. Then She Crossed a Trump Red Line.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-noem.html)\n  \n  ![Kristi Noem testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where her comments led the president to fire her later in the week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Tierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\n\n### Editors’ Picks\n- [How Older Adults Are Improving Their ‘Sex Span’](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/well\/family\/sex-span-longevity-health.html)\n  \n  ![At 82, Joan Price and her boyfriend, Mac Marshall, have had to adjust their bedroom activities to suit various physical limitations, but the couple maintain a weekly sex date.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl\/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times\n- [Seat 11A: The Windowless Inside Joke at 30,000 Feet](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/07\/us\/seat-11a-no-window-ryanair-airlines.html)\n  \n  ![On certain Boeing 737 and Airbus A321 jets, row 11 offers a seat sold as a window view that shows, instead, a wall. The discovery tends to arrive after boarding.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/26\/multimedia\/00xp-Seat11A-cvmj\/00xp-Seat11A-cvmj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Shutterstock\n\n### Trending in The Times\n- [Lucky, Heroic, Profane: The Story of N.Y.P.D. Shield No. 13558](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/08\/nyregion\/nypd-shield-history.html)\n  \n  ![Shield No. 13558 today. Does anything about the “3” look strange?](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/met-NYPD-badge-pqlj\/met-NYPD-badge-pqlj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Amir Hamja for The New York Times\n- [From 1998: Martha Gellhorn, Daring Writer, Dies at 89](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/us\/martha-gellhorn-dead.html)\n  \n  ![Martha Gellhorn in 1944, talking with American soldiers in Italy during World War II.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06WHM-Gellhorn-Obit-01-fhlc\/06WHM-Gellhorn-Obit-01-fhlc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  British War Office\n- [A Schools Chief So Charming That Los Angeles Overlooked His Red Flags](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/07\/us\/alberto-carvalho-lausd-scandals.html)\n  \n  ![Alberto Carvalho was hired to lead the L.A. 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![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/07\/multimedia\/00cottle-zpjk\/00cottle-zpjk-square640-v3.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Damon Winter\/The New York Times\n- [At Least 6 Dead as Tornadoes Slam Michigan and Oklahoma](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/06\/weather\/storm-forecast-missouri-kansas-oklahoma.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/arts\/Tornado-Thumb2\/Tornado-Thumb2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Lindsey Whitaker\n- [‘Protector’ Review: She Knows How to Give Life, and How to Take It](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/movies\/protector-review.html)\n  \n  ![In “Protector,” Milla Jovovich plays an Army veteran and mother who won’t stop until she finds out who kidnapped her daughter.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05cul-protector-review-tbhw\/05cul-protector-review-tbhw-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Magenta Light Studios\n- [Iran Has Friends, but Where Are They Now?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/05\/world\/middleeast\/iran-turkey-india-russia.html)\n  \n  ![A police station that was destroyed by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05int-iran-friends-01-lqbv\/05int-iran-friends-01-lqbv-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#after-bottom)\n\n## Site Index\n[Go to Home Page »](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/)\n\nNews\n\n- [Home Page](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/)\n- [U.S.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/us)\n- 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power.\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/06\/06\/multimedia\/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc\/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nPresident-elect Donald J. Trump during the Army-Navy football game in December, with Senator John Thune to the left of him and Speaker Mike Johnson to the right. The documentary filmmaker Justin Wells can be seen in the background, holding up a mobile phone. Credit...Doug Mills\/The New York Times\n\nJune 6, 2025\n\nA few weeks after winning the election, President-elect Donald J. Trump found himself face-to-face with Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a rising star in the Democratic Party, as the two men made their way through the bowels of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., to watch the annual Army-Navy game.\n\nThe governor greeted him effusively.\n\n“Mr. President, welcome back to Maryland, sir, welcome back to Maryland!” Mr. Moore said. “Great to see you, great to see you, great to have you back here.”\n\n“You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Trump observed.\n\n“We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” the governor added. Then he mentioned the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, which had collapsed that March.\n\nThis chummy encounter was captured on camera for a documentary series called “Art of the Surge,” now streaming on Fox Nation, which provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. The series gives a sense of how much he is enveloped by people eager to stroke his ego and get in his good graces — including some unexpected figures, according to advance episodes viewed by The New York Times.\n\nImage\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/00dc-trump-documentary\/00dc-trump-documentary-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nA still image from video footage of Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland greeting President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024.Credit...Art of the Surge\n\nAt one point, inside the V.I.P. box at the football game, Brian Grazer, a top Hollywood producer, gets his photo taken with the president-elect and confides to those in the room that he cast his ballot for the Republican.\n\nMr. Grazer tells the group that when he told some women he knows that he planned to vote for Mr. Trump, his decision was met with shock — it was almost as if he were “getting canceled.”\n\n“All the women looked in and go, ‘You mean, you’re not voting for Kamala?’ And I go, ‘I just can’t do that,’” he explains. “And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, ‘Are you voting for *Trump*?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ I swear!”\n\nReached this week by The Times, Mr. Grazer, who produced “Hillbilly Elegy,” the movie based on Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, said that he was at the game because his son attends West Point. Asked what made him want to vote for Mr. Trump, he said: “As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.”\n\nThis scene in the film also briefly shows Speaker Mike Johnson; Senator John Thune, the incoming majority leader; and Mr. Vance sitting with Mr. Trump in the V.I.P. box to discuss how they can get around a politically difficult vote to raise the debt ceiling once he is in office.\n\n“The debt ceiling vote doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s not even really a blockade on spending. It never has been.”\n\nMr. Thune adds, “I’ve been approached by a few Democrats about getting rid of it.”\n\nMr. Trump nods along, but what he seems most interested in is making sure everyone around him is having a good time. “Bring a couple of Cokes over,” he shouts. “For the guys.”\n\nA few days later, he would tank a spending bill and demand that Republicans add a debt-limit increase, throwing the negotiations into [total chaos](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/18\/us\/politics\/trump-musk-spending-bill.html).\n\nThe documentary series was made by the television producer Justin Wells, 42, who once worked as a producer for Tucker Carlson when he was a Fox News host. Mr. Wells was granted an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump over the last year. He spent much of the 2024 campaign filming Mr. Trump and those around him and released that footage on social media during the fall as Season 1 of “Art of the Surge.” He subsequently spent election night by Mr. Trump’s side and stuck around through the transition. More recently, he has been filming inside the West Wing.\n\n“I make no qualms that it’s friendly to Trump,” Mr. Wells said of the docuseries in an interview this week. “But this is him being more real than usual. The same with his team.” (He said that Mr. Trump’s team had no creative control over the series.)\n\nThe version of Mr. Trump who appears in the series is a bit different from the one on display in news conferences, onstage at his rallies or on social media. He comes across as more of a foul-mouthed, backslapping party boss with a pragmatic bent.\n\nIn one scene, Tulsi Gabbard is shown speaking to Mr. Trump as she gets her hair and makeup done before what would be a bruising confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. As strands of her hair are pulled through a flatiron, she tells the president on speakerphone that she is worried some Republicans may go wobbly on her.\n\n“Todd Young from Indiana, he’s a question mark,” Ms. Gabbard says. “OK, well, you let me know,” Mr. Trump says. “Go and have a good time,” he adds breezily. (Mr. Young voted to confirm her.)\n\nThe series provides a glimpse of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit who are omnipresent but seldom seen or heard from by the public. That includes [Natalie Harp](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/25\/us\/politics\/trump-natalie-harp.html), the young aide known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.\n\nIn one scene, she gives a demonstration. “OK, so we’re going to print a copy of ‘The Snake,’” she says, referring to the [anti-immigration poem](https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/frontline\/article\/watch-donald-trump-and-the-snake\/) Mr. Trump often reads at rallies. Dumping various pieces of equipment onto a tabletop, she starts to rapidly plug them together, explaining, “It goes faster if you plug in the generator. You don’t need the generator, but I like to do it just in the interest of speed.”\n\nImage\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/00dc-trump-documentary-02\/00dc-trump-documentary-02-articleLarge.png?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nNatalie Harp, an aide, is known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.Credit...Art of the Surge\n\n“She’s constantly with him,” Mr. Wells said, adding: “The way he often delivers messages to people is, she’ll print stuff, give it to him, he’ll write a note on it with a Sharpie, she’ll take a picture of the printout or screen grab and then text it to the person he wants to reach.”\n\nThe documentary depicts Mr. Trump surrounded by a constant, rolling circus of unexpected characters. The actor Sylvester Stallone and President Javier Milei of Argentina are shown hitting it off at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club and residence in Florida, as they wait to see Mr. Trump. One of his former wives, Marla Maples, is filmed introducing herself to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s young children. (“I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, Tiffany? I’m the former wife of the president, and it’s so good to see all of you.”)\n\nMr. Wells films Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump hanging out with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago on election night, when his partnership with Mr. Trump was still in early bloom. “It’s been great to see you all over this,” she tells Mr. Musk. “We really have gratitude. Have you had fun with it?”\n\nScenes showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk bonding are particularly striking, given their [jarring breakup](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/05\/us\/politics\/trump-elon-musk-fight.html) on Thursday. One long sequence shows Mr. Trump and his posse traveling to South Texas to watch Mr. Musk launch a rocket. Mr. Trump seems in awe of what Mr. Musk has built as he shows him around the facility.\n\n“I was around them intimately and closely for so many hours, both when they’re together and independent of each other,” Mr. Wells said. He said he felt that the two billionaires had a “genuine” connection. “Even just watching the way Trump would tap him on the shoulder, it was like he was his nephew, or almost like a son,” he said. “There was a realness to it.”\n\nSo he said he was just as shocked as anyone, if not more, by how fast they fell out.\n\n“Frankly,” Mr. Wells said, “I’m mind-blown at what’s transpired.”\n\n[Shawn McCreesh](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/shawn-mccreesh) is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.\n\nA version of this article appears in print on June 7, 2025, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Bubble of Ingratiation, Streaming for All to See. [Order Reprints](https:\/\/nytimes.wrightsmedia.com\/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)\n\n## Related Content\n[More in Politics](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/politics)\n\n- ![Brandon Herrera had forced a run-off with the incumbent, the Republican Tony Gonzales, before Mr. Gonzales ended his re-election bid.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06nat-AKguy-tx-kgvl\/06nat-AKguy-tx-kgvl-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Brenda BazáN\/Associated Press\n- ![Kurt Alme, who has been serving as the U.S. attorney for Montana, was endorsed by Senator Steve Daines and President Trump to succeed Mr. Daines in a race for what will now be an open seat.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/us\/politics\/pol-montana\/pol-montana-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Thom Bridge\/Independent Record, via Associated Press\n- ![Mrs. Onassis in an undated photo in New York City.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06WHM-Kennedy-Obit-lwmh\/06WHM-Kennedy-Obit-lwmh-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n- ![Kristi Noem testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, where her comments led the president to fire her later in the week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc\/06dc-trump-noem-gmpc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Tierney L. Cross\/The New York Times\n\nEditors’ Picks\n\n- ![At 82, Joan Price and her boyfriend, Mac Marshall, have had to adjust their bedroom activities to suit various physical limitations, but the couple maintain a weekly sex date.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/04\/multimedia\/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl\/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times\n- ![On certain Boeing 737 and Airbus A321 jets, row 11 offers a seat sold as a window view that shows, instead, a wall. The discovery tends to arrive after boarding.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/26\/multimedia\/00xp-Seat11A-cvmj\/00xp-Seat11A-cvmj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Shutterstock\n\nTrending in The Times\n\n- ![Shield No. 13558 today. Does anything about the “3” look strange?](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/met-NYPD-badge-pqlj\/met-NYPD-badge-pqlj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Amir Hamja for The New York Times\n- ![Martha Gellhorn in 1944, talking with American soldiers in Italy during World War II.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/multimedia\/06WHM-Gellhorn-Obit-01-fhlc\/06WHM-Gellhorn-Obit-01-fhlc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  British War Office\n- ![Alberto Carvalho was hired to lead the L.A. Unified School District in 2021.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/07\/multimedia\/07nat-lausd-profile-01-mvhw\/07nat-lausd-profile-01-mvhw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Philip Cheung for The New York Times\n- ![Consumers are growing weary of healthy-but-kinda-mushy meals.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/26\/business\/00biz-bowl-bust\/00biz-bowl-bust-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/well\/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2\/06WELL-TREADMILL-TREND2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Getty Images\n- ![A missile fired to intercept incoming fire flew over Jerusalem on Sunday, with the Al Aqsa Mosque compound visible in the foreground.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05Israel-aqsa-06-vcpw\/05Israel-aqsa-06-vcpw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Ammar Awad\/Reuters\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/07\/multimedia\/00cottle-zpjk\/00cottle-zpjk-square640-v3.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Damon Winter\/The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/06\/arts\/Tornado-Thumb2\/Tornado-Thumb2-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Lindsey Whitaker\n- ![In “Protector,” Milla Jovovich plays an Army veteran and mother who won’t stop until she finds out who kidnapped her daughter.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05cul-protector-review-tbhw\/05cul-protector-review-tbhw-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Magenta Light Studios\n- ![A police station that was destroyed by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/05\/multimedia\/05int-iran-friends-01-lqbv\/05int-iran-friends-01-lqbv-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-documentary-series.html#after-bottom)","meta_canonical":null}

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Meta Description	Advance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power.
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Boilerpipe Text	Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Advance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. President-elect Donald J. Trump during the Army-Navy football game in December, with Senator John Thune to the left of him and Speaker Mike Johnson to the right. The documentary filmmaker Justin Wells can be seen in the background, holding up a mobile phone. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times June 6, 2025 A few weeks after winning the election, President-elect Donald J. Trump found himself face-to-face with Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a rising star in the Democratic Party, as the two men made their way through the bowels of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., to watch the annual Army-Navy game. The governor greeted him effusively. “Mr. President, welcome back to Maryland, sir, welcome back to Maryland!” Mr. Moore said. “Great to see you, great to see you, great to have you back here.” “You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Trump observed. “We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” the governor added. Then he mentioned the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, which had collapsed that March. This chummy encounter was captured on camera for a documentary series called “Art of the Surge,” now streaming on Fox Nation, which provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. The series gives a sense of how much he is enveloped by people eager to stroke his ego and get in his good graces — including some unexpected figures, according to advance episodes viewed by The New York Times. Image A still image from video footage of Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland greeting President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024. Credit... Art of the Surge At one point, inside the V.I.P. box at the football game, Brian Grazer, a top Hollywood producer, gets his photo taken with the president-elect and confides to those in the room that he cast his ballot for the Republican. Mr. Grazer tells the group that when he told some women he knows that he planned to vote for Mr. Trump, his decision was met with shock — it was almost as if he were “getting canceled.” “All the women looked in and go, ‘You mean, you’re not voting for Kamala?’ And I go, ‘I just can’t do that,’” he explains. “And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, ‘Are you voting for Trump ?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ I swear!” Reached this week by The Times, Mr. Grazer, who produced “Hillbilly Elegy,” the movie based on Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, said that he was at the game because his son attends West Point. Asked what made him want to vote for Mr. Trump, he said: “As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.” This scene in the film also briefly shows Speaker Mike Johnson; Senator John Thune, the incoming majority leader; and Mr. Vance sitting with Mr. Trump in the V.I.P. box to discuss how they can get around a politically difficult vote to raise the debt ceiling once he is in office. “The debt ceiling vote doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s not even really a blockade on spending. It never has been.” Mr. Thune adds, “I’ve been approached by a few Democrats about getting rid of it.” Mr. Trump nods along, but what he seems most interested in is making sure everyone around him is having a good time. “Bring a couple of Cokes over,” he shouts. “For the guys.” A few days later, he would tank a spending bill and demand that Republicans add a debt-limit increase, throwing the negotiations into total chaos . The documentary series was made by the television producer Justin Wells, 42, who once worked as a producer for Tucker Carlson when he was a Fox News host. Mr. Wells was granted an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump over the last year. He spent much of the 2024 campaign filming Mr. Trump and those around him and released that footage on social media during the fall as Season 1 of “Art of the Surge.” He subsequently spent election night by Mr. Trump’s side and stuck around through the transition. More recently, he has been filming inside the West Wing. “I make no qualms that it’s friendly to Trump,” Mr. Wells said of the docuseries in an interview this week. “But this is him being more real than usual. The same with his team.” (He said that Mr. Trump’s team had no creative control over the series.) The version of Mr. Trump who appears in the series is a bit different from the one on display in news conferences, onstage at his rallies or on social media. He comes across as more of a foul-mouthed, backslapping party boss with a pragmatic bent. In one scene, Tulsi Gabbard is shown speaking to Mr. Trump as she gets her hair and makeup done before what would be a bruising confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. As strands of her hair are pulled through a flatiron, she tells the president on speakerphone that she is worried some Republicans may go wobbly on her. “Todd Young from Indiana, he’s a question mark,” Ms. Gabbard says. “OK, well, you let me know,” Mr. Trump says. “Go and have a good time,” he adds breezily. (Mr. Young voted to confirm her.) The series provides a glimpse of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit who are omnipresent but seldom seen or heard from by the public. That includes Natalie Harp , the young aide known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers. In one scene, she gives a demonstration. “OK, so we’re going to print a copy of ‘The Snake,’” she says, referring to the anti-immigration poem Mr. Trump often reads at rallies. Dumping various pieces of equipment onto a tabletop, she starts to rapidly plug them together, explaining, “It goes faster if you plug in the generator. You don’t need the generator, but I like to do it just in the interest of speed.” Image Natalie Harp, an aide, is known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers. Credit... Art of the Surge “She’s constantly with him,” Mr. Wells said, adding: “The way he often delivers messages to people is, she’ll print stuff, give it to him, he’ll write a note on it with a Sharpie, she’ll take a picture of the printout or screen grab and then text it to the person he wants to reach.” The documentary depicts Mr. Trump surrounded by a constant, rolling circus of unexpected characters. The actor Sylvester Stallone and President Javier Milei of Argentina are shown hitting it off at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club and residence in Florida, as they wait to see Mr. Trump. One of his former wives, Marla Maples, is filmed introducing herself to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s young children. (“I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, Tiffany? I’m the former wife of the president, and it’s so good to see all of you.”) Mr. Wells films Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump hanging out with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago on election night, when his partnership with Mr. Trump was still in early bloom. “It’s been great to see you all over this,” she tells Mr. Musk. “We really have gratitude. Have you had fun with it?” Scenes showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk bonding are particularly striking, given their jarring breakup on Thursday. One long sequence shows Mr. Trump and his posse traveling to South Texas to watch Mr. Musk launch a rocket. Mr. Trump seems in awe of what Mr. Musk has built as he shows him around the facility. “I was around them intimately and closely for so many hours, both when they’re together and independent of each other,” Mr. Wells said. He said he felt that the two billionaires had a “genuine” connection. “Even just watching the way Trump would tap him on the shoulder, it was like he was his nephew, or almost like a son,” he said. “There was a realness to it.” So he said he was just as shocked as anyone, if not more, by how fast they fell out. “Frankly,” Mr. Wells said, “I’m mind-blown at what’s transpired.” Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration. A version of this article appears in print on June 7, 2025 , Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Bubble of Ingratiation, Streaming for All to See . Order Reprints \| Today’s Paper \| Subscribe Related Content More in Politics Brenda BazáN/Associated Press Thom Bridge/Independent Record, via Associated Press Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Editors’ Picks Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times Shutterstock Trending in The Times Amir Hamja for The New York Times British War Office Philip Cheung for The New York Times Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times Getty Images Ammar Awad/Reuters Damon Winter/The New York Times Lindsey Whitaker Magenta Light Studios Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Markdown	[Skip to content](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html#site-index) Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation Search [Politics](https://www.nytimes.com/section/politics) [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2025%252F06%252F06%252Fus%252Fpolitics%252Ftrump-documentary-series.html&asset=masthead) Sunday, March 8, 2026 [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) Trump Administration - live[War in the Middle East](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/08/world/iran-war-trump-israel-lebanon) March 8, 2026, 5:07 a.m. ET9m ago - [Job Losses](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/business/economy/what-to-know-about-the-report.html) - [Kristi Noem Fired](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/us/politics/kristi-noem-dhs-timeline.html) - [F.D.A Vaccine Regulator Resigning](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/health/fda-prasad-resigns.html) - [Approval Rating](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/donald-trump-approval-rating-polls.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html#after-top) Supported by [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html#after-sponsor) # Documentary Series Goes Inside Trump’s Bubble Advance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. - Share full article ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/06/06/multimedia/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) President-elect Donald J. Trump during the Army-Navy football game in December, with Senator John Thune to the left of him and Speaker Mike Johnson to the right. The documentary filmmaker Justin Wells can be seen in the background, holding up a mobile phone. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times [![Shawn McCreesh](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/12/13/reader-center/author-shawn-mccreesh/author-shawn-mccreesh-thumbLarge-v3.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/shawn-mccreesh) By [Shawn McCreesh](https://www.nytimes.com/by/shawn-mccreesh) Reporting from Washington June 6, 2025 A few weeks after winning the election, President-elect Donald J. Trump found himself face-to-face with Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a rising star in the Democratic Party, as the two men made their way through the bowels of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., to watch the annual Army-Navy game. The governor greeted him effusively. “Mr. President, welcome back to Maryland, sir, welcome back to Maryland!” Mr. Moore said. “Great to see you, great to see you, great to have you back here.” “You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Trump observed. “We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” the governor added. Then he mentioned the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, which had collapsed that March. This chummy encounter was captured on camera for a documentary series called “Art of the Surge,” now streaming on Fox Nation, which provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. The series gives a sense of how much he is enveloped by people eager to stroke his ego and get in his good graces — including some unexpected figures, according to advance episodes viewed by The New York Times. Image ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/06/06/us/politics/00dc-trump-documentary/00dc-trump-documentary-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) A still image from video footage of Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland greeting President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024.Credit...Art of the Surge At one point, inside the V.I.P. box at the football game, Brian Grazer, a top Hollywood producer, gets his photo taken with the president-elect and confides to those in the room that he cast his ballot for the Republican. Mr. Grazer tells the group that when he told some women he knows that he planned to vote for Mr. Trump, his decision was met with shock — it was almost as if he were “getting canceled.” “All the women looked in and go, ‘You mean, you’re not voting for Kamala?’ And I go, ‘I just can’t do that,’” he explains. “And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, ‘Are you voting for Trump?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ I swear!” Reached this week by The Times, Mr. Grazer, who produced “Hillbilly Elegy,” the movie based on Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, said that he was at the game because his son attends West Point. Asked what made him want to vote for Mr. Trump, he said: “As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.” ## Editors’ Picks [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/15/arts/15myten-Cannavale/15myten-Cannavale-thumbLarge.jpg)Bobby Cannavale Loves ‘Heated Rivalry’ and His Bearded Dragon](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/arts/television/bobby-cannavale-bearded-dragon-scarpetta.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/04/multimedia/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl/WELL-SEXSPAN1-gqvl-thumbLarge-v2.jpg)How Older Adults Are Improving Their ‘Sex Span’](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/well/family/sex-span-longevity-health.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/03/08/multimedia/08ST-SBB-WEDDINGS-bmhg/08ST-SBB-WEDDINGS-bmhg-thumbLarge.jpg)Can a Bride Ban a Hairstyle?](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/style/wedding-planning-bridesmaid-hair-rules.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html#after-pp_edpick) This scene in the film also briefly shows Speaker Mike Johnson; Senator John Thune, the incoming majority leader; and Mr. Vance sitting with Mr. Trump in the V.I.P. box to discuss how they can get around a politically difficult vote to raise the debt ceiling once he is in office. “The debt ceiling vote doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s not even really a blockade on spending. It never has been.” Mr. Thune adds, “I’ve been approached by a few Democrats about getting rid of it.” Mr. Trump nods along, but what he seems most interested in is making sure everyone around him is having a good time. “Bring a couple of Cokes over,” he shouts. “For the guys.” A few days later, he would tank a spending bill and demand that Republicans add a debt-limit increase, throwing the negotiations into [total chaos](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/us/politics/trump-musk-spending-bill.html). The documentary series was made by the television producer Justin Wells, 42, who once worked as a producer for Tucker Carlson when he was a Fox News host. Mr. Wells was granted an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump over the last year. He spent much of the 2024 campaign filming Mr. Trump and those around him and released that footage on social media during the fall as Season 1 of “Art of the Surge.” He subsequently spent election night by Mr. Trump’s side and stuck around through the transition. More recently, he has been filming inside the West Wing. “I make no qualms that it’s friendly to Trump,” Mr. Wells said of the docuseries in an interview this week. “But this is him being more real than usual. The same with his team.” (He said that Mr. Trump’s team had no creative control over the series.) The version of Mr. Trump who appears in the series is a bit different from the one on display in news conferences, onstage at his rallies or on social media. He comes across as more of a foul-mouthed, backslapping party boss with a pragmatic bent. In one scene, Tulsi Gabbard is shown speaking to Mr. Trump as she gets her hair and makeup done before what would be a bruising confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. As strands of her hair are pulled through a flatiron, she tells the president on speakerphone that she is worried some Republicans may go wobbly on her. “Todd Young from Indiana, he’s a question mark,” Ms. Gabbard says. “OK, well, you let me know,” Mr. Trump says. “Go and have a good time,” he adds breezily. (Mr. Young voted to confirm her.) The series provides a glimpse of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit who are omnipresent but seldom seen or heard from by the public. That includes [Natalie Harp](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/us/politics/trump-natalie-harp.html), the young aide known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers. In one scene, she gives a demonstration. “OK, so we’re going to print a copy of ‘The Snake,’” she says, referring to the [anti-immigration poem](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/watch-donald-trump-and-the-snake/) Mr. Trump often reads at rallies. Dumping various pieces of equipment onto a tabletop, she starts to rapidly plug them together, explaining, “It goes faster if you plug in the generator. You don’t need the generator, but I like to do it just in the interest of speed.” Image ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/06/06/us/politics/00dc-trump-documentary-02/00dc-trump-documentary-02-articleLarge.png?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Natalie Harp, an aide, is known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.Credit...Art of the Surge “She’s constantly with him,” Mr. Wells said, adding: “The way he often delivers messages to people is, she’ll print stuff, give it to him, he’ll write a note on it with a Sharpie, she’ll take a picture of the printout or screen grab and then text it to the person he wants to reach.” The documentary depicts Mr. Trump surrounded by a constant, rolling circus of unexpected characters. The actor Sylvester Stallone and President Javier Milei of Argentina are shown hitting it off at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club and residence in Florida, as they wait to see Mr. Trump. One of his former wives, Marla Maples, is filmed introducing herself to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s young children. (“I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, Tiffany? I’m the former wife of the president, and it’s so good to see all of you.”) Mr. Wells films Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump hanging out with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago on election night, when his partnership with Mr. Trump was still in early bloom. “It’s been great to see you all over this,” she tells Mr. Musk. “We really have gratitude. Have you had fun with it?” Scenes showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk bonding are particularly striking, given their [jarring breakup](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/politics/trump-elon-musk-fight.html) on Thursday. One long sequence shows Mr. Trump and his posse traveling to South Texas to watch Mr. Musk launch a rocket. Mr. Trump seems in awe of what Mr. Musk has built as he shows him around the facility. “I was around them intimately and closely for so many hours, both when they’re together and independent of each other,” Mr. Wells said. He said he felt that the two billionaires had a “genuine” connection. “Even just watching the way Trump would tap him on the shoulder, it was like he was his nephew, or almost like a son,” he said. “There was a realness to it.” So he said he was just as shocked as anyone, if not more, by how fast they fell out. “Frankly,” Mr. Wells said, “I’m mind-blown at what’s transpired.” [Shawn McCreesh](https://www.nytimes.com/by/shawn-mccreesh) is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration. A version of this article appears in print on June 7, 2025, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Bubble of Ingratiation, Streaming for All to See. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY) See more on: [U.S. Politics](https://www.nytimes.com/section/politics), [Donald Trump](https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/donald-trump), [Tulsi Gabbard](https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/tulsi-gabbard), [Wes Moore](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/wes-moore) - Share full article * ## The Latest on the Trump Administration * - DOGE Used ChatGPT: Documents reveal how A.I. was [used to cancel](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/arts/humanities-endowment-doge-trump.html) most previously approved grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with employees from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pulling short grant summaries off the internet and feeding them into the A.I. chatbot. - Weapons Supply: President Trump insisted that the United States had [no shortage of munitions](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/trump-us-weapons-stocks.html) with which to pummel Iran, even as concern grew about the risk that a monthslong war could deplete American weapons stocks. The administration also bypassed Congress to [sell more than 20,000 bombs to Israel](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/state-department-bomb-sale-israel.html). - Cyberwarfare: Trump called on private companies to take a [more active role in U.S. cybersecurity](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/trump-cybersecurity-strategy.html), a major shift that raises legal and practical questions about how companies would get involved in the nation’s closely guarded cyberoperations. - Weak Jobs Report: The president’s economic advisers [insist that any signs of strains are temporary](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/business/economy/trump-gas-prices.html), while [Democrats warned](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/business/economy/jobs-report-unemployment-democrats-republicans-midterms.html) that [an unexpectedly poor jobs report](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/business/economy/what-to-know-about-the-report.html) signaled that the economy could sink into a recession. - Fight With Law Firms: The Department of Justice [attacked the federal judiciary](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/justice-department-law-firms-executive-orders.html), accusing judges who ruled against the Trump administration of undermining Trump’s authority while continuing to fight a case involving law firms that it had previously signaled it was ready to abandon. - National Security Resources: Firings, resignations and diversions to the president’s priorities have left [elite counterterrorism and counterintelligence units stretched thin](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/trump-iran-war-doj-dhs-firings.html), current and former officials say. There is widespread concern about the capacity of these units to deal with threats unleashed by Iran. * How We Report on the Trump Administration** Hundreds of readers asked about our coverage of the president. 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Readable Markdown	Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-documentary-series.html#after-top) Advance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/06/06/multimedia/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc/06dc-trump-documentary-hmgc-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) President-elect Donald J. Trump during the Army-Navy football game in December, with Senator John Thune to the left of him and Speaker Mike Johnson to the right. The documentary filmmaker Justin Wells can be seen in the background, holding up a mobile phone. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times June 6, 2025 A few weeks after winning the election, President-elect Donald J. Trump found himself face-to-face with Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a rising star in the Democratic Party, as the two men made their way through the bowels of Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., to watch the annual Army-Navy game. The governor greeted him effusively. “Mr. President, welcome back to Maryland, sir, welcome back to Maryland!” Mr. Moore said. “Great to see you, great to see you, great to have you back here.” “You’re a good-looking guy,” Mr. Trump observed. “We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” the governor added. Then he mentioned the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, which had collapsed that March. This chummy encounter was captured on camera for a documentary series called “Art of the Surge,” now streaming on Fox Nation, which provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power. The series gives a sense of how much he is enveloped by people eager to stroke his ego and get in his good graces — including some unexpected figures, according to advance episodes viewed by The New York Times. Image ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/06/06/us/politics/00dc-trump-documentary/00dc-trump-documentary-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) A still image from video footage of Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland greeting President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024.Credit...Art of the Surge At one point, inside the V.I.P. box at the football game, Brian Grazer, a top Hollywood producer, gets his photo taken with the president-elect and confides to those in the room that he cast his ballot for the Republican. Mr. Grazer tells the group that when he told some women he knows that he planned to vote for Mr. Trump, his decision was met with shock — it was almost as if he were “getting canceled.” “All the women looked in and go, ‘You mean, you’re not voting for Kamala?’ And I go, ‘I just can’t do that,’” he explains. “And then, one of them leaned in further, and said, ‘Are you voting for Trump?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ I swear!” Reached this week by The Times, Mr. Grazer, who produced “Hillbilly Elegy,” the movie based on Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, said that he was at the game because his son attends West Point. Asked what made him want to vote for Mr. Trump, he said: “As a centrist, it was because I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.” This scene in the film also briefly shows Speaker Mike Johnson; Senator John Thune, the incoming majority leader; and Mr. Vance sitting with Mr. Trump in the V.I.P. box to discuss how they can get around a politically difficult vote to raise the debt ceiling once he is in office. “The debt ceiling vote doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Johnson says. “It’s not even really a blockade on spending. It never has been.” Mr. Thune adds, “I’ve been approached by a few Democrats about getting rid of it.” Mr. Trump nods along, but what he seems most interested in is making sure everyone around him is having a good time. “Bring a couple of Cokes over,” he shouts. “For the guys.” A few days later, he would tank a spending bill and demand that Republicans add a debt-limit increase, throwing the negotiations into [total chaos](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/us/politics/trump-musk-spending-bill.html). The documentary series was made by the television producer Justin Wells, 42, who once worked as a producer for Tucker Carlson when he was a Fox News host. Mr. Wells was granted an unusual level of access to Mr. Trump over the last year. He spent much of the 2024 campaign filming Mr. Trump and those around him and released that footage on social media during the fall as Season 1 of “Art of the Surge.” He subsequently spent election night by Mr. Trump’s side and stuck around through the transition. More recently, he has been filming inside the West Wing. “I make no qualms that it’s friendly to Trump,” Mr. Wells said of the docuseries in an interview this week. “But this is him being more real than usual. The same with his team.” (He said that Mr. Trump’s team had no creative control over the series.) The version of Mr. Trump who appears in the series is a bit different from the one on display in news conferences, onstage at his rallies or on social media. He comes across as more of a foul-mouthed, backslapping party boss with a pragmatic bent. In one scene, Tulsi Gabbard is shown speaking to Mr. Trump as she gets her hair and makeup done before what would be a bruising confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. As strands of her hair are pulled through a flatiron, she tells the president on speakerphone that she is worried some Republicans may go wobbly on her. “Todd Young from Indiana, he’s a question mark,” Ms. Gabbard says. “OK, well, you let me know,” Mr. Trump says. “Go and have a good time,” he adds breezily. (Mr. Young voted to confirm her.) The series provides a glimpse of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit who are omnipresent but seldom seen or heard from by the public. That includes [Natalie Harp](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/us/politics/trump-natalie-harp.html), the young aide known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers. In one scene, she gives a demonstration. “OK, so we’re going to print a copy of ‘The Snake,’” she says, referring to the [anti-immigration poem](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/watch-donald-trump-and-the-snake/) Mr. Trump often reads at rallies. Dumping various pieces of equipment onto a tabletop, she starts to rapidly plug them together, explaining, “It goes faster if you plug in the generator. You don’t need the generator, but I like to do it just in the interest of speed.” Image ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/06/06/us/politics/00dc-trump-documentary-02/00dc-trump-documentary-02-articleLarge.png?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Natalie Harp, an aide, is known as “the human printer” because she tails Mr. Trump with a portable printer so she can hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.Credit...Art of the Surge “She’s constantly with him,” Mr. Wells said, adding: “The way he often delivers messages to people is, she’ll print stuff, give it to him, he’ll write a note on it with a Sharpie, she’ll take a picture of the printout or screen grab and then text it to the person he wants to reach.” The documentary depicts Mr. Trump surrounded by a constant, rolling circus of unexpected characters. The actor Sylvester Stallone and President Javier Milei of Argentina are shown hitting it off at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s club and residence in Florida, as they wait to see Mr. Trump. One of his former wives, Marla Maples, is filmed introducing herself to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s young children. (“I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, Tiffany? I’m the former wife of the president, and it’s so good to see all of you.”) Mr. Wells films Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump hanging out with Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago on election night, when his partnership with Mr. Trump was still in early bloom. “It’s been great to see you all over this,” she tells Mr. Musk. “We really have gratitude. Have you had fun with it?” Scenes showing Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk bonding are particularly striking, given their [jarring breakup](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/politics/trump-elon-musk-fight.html) on Thursday. One long sequence shows Mr. Trump and his posse traveling to South Texas to watch Mr. Musk launch a rocket. Mr. Trump seems in awe of what Mr. Musk has built as he shows him around the facility. “I was around them intimately and closely for so many hours, both when they’re together and independent of each other,” Mr. Wells said. He said he felt that the two billionaires had a “genuine” connection. “Even just watching the way Trump would tap him on the shoulder, it was like he was his nephew, or almost like a son,” he said. “There was a realness to it.” So he said he was just as shocked as anyone, if not more, by how fast they fell out. “Frankly,” Mr. Wells said, “I’m mind-blown at what’s transpired.” [Shawn McCreesh](https://www.nytimes.com/by/shawn-mccreesh) is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration. A version of this article appears in print on June 7, 2025, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Bubble of Ingratiation, Streaming for All to See. 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