Donald Trump railed against a just released biopic about his life in a social media screed early on Monday, calling it a “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job” meant to thwart his presidential candidacy.
The Apprentice portrays how Trump created his real estate empire under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, a notoriously cutthroat attorney and power-broker in 1970s and 1980s New York City, Intelligencer notes. Trump is played by the Marvel actor Sebastian Stan and Cohn by the Succession star Jeremy Strong.
Trump’s ex-wife Ivana Trump is played by Maria Bakalova – whose breakout role in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm landed her an Academy award nomination. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of The Apprentice indicating that portions were “fictionalized for dramatic purposes”, Intelligencer notes.
In his rant Trump described the film as “fake and classless”. Trump said he hoped it would “bomb” and alleged that it was “put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country, ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’”
The Apprentice has spurred praise and controversy since its premiere at the Cannes film festival in May. The screenwriter, Gabriel Sherman, described numerous roadblocks in its production.
Actors were reluctant to “humanize” Trump, Sherman said in Vanity Fair, and Hollywood institutions did not want to fund the project. And, the most significant investor into this project allegedly threatened to kill the film after viewing it.
This investor was Dan Snyder, a billionaire who formerly owned the NFL’s Washington Commanders and a major Trump supporter. Snyder reportedly invested in The Apprentice through his son-in-law Mark Rapaport’s film production company, Variety said.
“He was under the impression that it was a flattering portrayal of the 45th president,” the outlet reported.
The Apprentice is anything but. It contains a scene in which Trump’s character appears to sexually assault his first wife, Ivana, takes amphetamines, undergoes liposuction, and receives a hair transplant.
Ivana claimed that Trump raped her during a divorce deposition, but later recanted this allegation. Trump has denied attacking Ivana. Trump, who has been found liable of sexually abusing the writer E Jean Carroll in civil court, has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women.
Trump’s lawyers sent The Apprentice’s film-makers cease-and-desist letters, and prominent distributors would not go near it. “Hollywood fashions itself as a community of truth tellers,” Sherman said, “but here they were running from a movie to prepare for a Trump presidency.”
In his social media attack posted just before 1am, Trump focused on the film’s depiction of Ivana, who died in July 2022 after an accidental fall.
“My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died,” Trump wrote. “The writer of this pile of garbage, Gabe Sherman, a lowlife and talentless hack, who has long been widely discredited, knew that, but chose to ignore it.
“So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement, which is far bigger than any of us. MAGA2024!”
The film’s director, Ali Abbasi, seemed unbothered by Trump’s Truth Social invective.
“Thanks for getting back to us @realDonaldTrump,” Abbasi posted on X this morning, with a screenshot of his post. “I am available to talk further if you want. Today is a tight day w a lot of press for #TheApprentice but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow.”
Asked to elaborate on Trump’s statement, his campaign pointed to Sherman’s comments about fictionalization in the film.
“The filmmakers now readily admit they fabricated scenes and created fake stories to fit some deranged narrative about President Trump that is completely untrue. This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign communications director, said in a statement.
Cheung likened the film to purported “witch-hunts” by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, saying it was “election interference by Hollywood elites right before November, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.
“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should never see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire,” Cheung also said.
