Donald Trump breaks silence on 'Apprentice' movie: 'Disgusting hatchet job'
Former President Donald Trump has spoken out for the first time since a biopic about him, "The Apprentice," arrived in theaters.
In a Sunday night Truth Social post, the Republican presidential nominee wrote, "A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully 'bomb.' It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, 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 film − directed by Ali Abbasi and featuring "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" star Sebastian Stan as Trump and "Succession" actor Jeremy Strong as his mentor Roy Cohn − premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May and arrived in theaters Friday.
Trump's post added: "My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died. 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!"
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In one of the film's most controversial scenes, Trump sexually assaults his then-wife Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova).
The alleged rape, which Ivana Trump recanted in 2015, was taken from a court deposition “that Ivana gave under oath during her 1990 divorce,” screenwriter Gabriel Sherman told USA TODAY. Per The Daily Beast, Ivana Trump said in the 1993 book "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump" that she and Trump "had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage" and "referred to this as a 'rape,' but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense."
Earlier this year, the Trump campaign threatened to sue the filmmakers, denouncing "The Apprentice" as "pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked."
In its opening weekend, "The Apprentice" earned $1.58 million at the domestic box office, landing at No. 10 behind titles such as "Terrifier 3" (which opened at No. 1), "Joker: Folie à Deux" (No. 3) and the re-release of 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (No. 9), according to Box Office Mojo.
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"The Apprentice" is described as "a candid portrayal of Donald Trump's rise to power" in the 1970s and '80s that "provides an unfiltered look at Trump's complicated and often unseemly journey."
Abbasi has previously expressed his interest in speaking with Trump and screening the film for him. In a post responding to Trump on X, formerly Twitter, Abbasi maintained the same stance.
"Thanks for getting back to us @realDonaldTrump. I am available to talk further if you want," Abbasi wrote on Monday. "Today is a tight day w a lot of press for #TheApprentice but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow."
In a recent interview with USA TODAY, Abbasi explained why he believes the biopic is so polarizing.
Fact checking 'The Apprentice':Did Donald Trump rape his wife Ivana?
“The whole idea was to humanize these people,” he said. As a result, “we get both sides: This side thinks it’s too nice to him, this side says it’s too mean. I don’t want to do propaganda for Trump, but I don’t want to do a hit piece, either. I can’t let the politics of the day dictate our artistic agenda.”
“The Apprentice” spans several decades of the former president's life and starts with a young Trump working for his father Fred's real estate company. He dreams of opening a luxury hotel in Manhattan but starts out going door to door collecting rent. He meets Cohn, who first helps the Trumps in court and then becomes a mentor to the aspiring real estate tycoon.
Trump takes to heart Cohn’s advice (there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers”), and his hotel business takes off and turns him into a Manhattan power player.
There’s a turn, however, and the movie focuses on how Donald’s confidence and cruelty takes hold. He cheats on wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova), rapes her in one of the film's most disturbing sequences, and shuns his mentor when Cohn becomes sick and eventually dies from AIDS.
Contributing: Brian Truitt