The war of words between Donald Trump's legal team and the filmmakers of the controversial Trump biopic The Apprentice that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week continues to escalate. Ali Abbasi, the director of the film, fired back on Tuesday with some pretty choice words for the former president and his lawyers.

A clip posted by Deadline on X/Twitter showcases a press conference with the creative team behind The Apprentice. In the clip, a question has clearly just asked been asked about the filmmakers' reaction to the threat of a lawsuit from Donald Trump's camp.

Abbasi's answer is short but poignant: “I mean, everybody talks about him suing a lot of people. They don't talk about the success rate though, you know?” The comment was immediately greeted with laughter and applause.

After premiering at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on Monday night, The Apprentice immediately became a lightning rod for controversy. First, it was reported that reviled former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder — an investor on the film — was furious with the cut.

Snyder, a Trump supporter, was apparently under the impression that the film would depict the former president in a flattering light. This response was a bit baffling since one would expect, in theory, a film financier to at least read the script of a film that he's bankrolling.

Shortly thereafter, according to Deadline, a spokesman from Trump's campaign, Steven Cheung, declared in the Trump-iest terms possible, “We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”

“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Cheung continued. “As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”

What exactly is so lawsuit-worthy in The Apprentice?

Multiple reviews have pointed out that Sebastian Stan, the actor who portrays Donald Trump in the film, portrays the 45th president as self-obsessed and power hungry — but it's unlikely this is what Trump's team is upset about. The most controversial scene in the film centers on a depiction of Trump raping his first wife Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova).

The scene is based on Ivana Trump's account during a deposition in her divorce proceedings from Donald, though in later years she stated that the rape claim was “without merit”. Ivana Trump passed away in 2022, so now it's just Trump's word against the complicated historical record and the filmmakers' accounts.

It's unlikely The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi's quip at the Cannes press conference will be the last word on the brewing controversy over the Donald Trump biopic, but for now we'll just have to wait and see how the former president's team responds.