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The Apprentice was fêted by the Cannes Film Festival audience with an 11-minute standing ovation. However, back in the US, Donald Trump's campaign said they will file a lawsuit against the film's director Ali Abbasi, Deadline reported.
“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” Trump campaign political advisor Steven Cheung said Monday in reference to Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice. He directed it from Gabriel Sherman's script.
When Donald Trump was The Apprentice
The film follows the rise of Trump (Sebastian Stan) from underneath his father's shadow with the help of the notoriously well-connected Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). The movie is currently in competition at Cannes.
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Cheung said.
“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,” the spokesperson added.
One of the scenes in the movie is of Trump sexually assaulting his then-wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova). Trump's first ex-wife died in 2022. She spoke about the assault after their divorce. However, she recanted decades before she died.
Another scene in the film is a graphic portrayal of Trump at a hair appointment to cover up his bald spot, as well as a liposuction for his girth. It has also long been rumored that Trump also pops pill — amphetamines, specifically.
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Is it really “malicious defamation ” and “dumpster fire”?
Despite the enthusiastic response in France, the movie currently has mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 63% rating from eight reviews. Metacritic has it at 52, indicating it as mixed or average.
Most of the positive reviews centered on Stan and Strong's performances, but the Trump campaign doesn't seem to care about that.
“This ‘film' is pure malicious defamation, should not 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 insisted.
If in case you're wondering why Trump's words are distilled through a spokesperson, that's because the former president has a gag order. He already owes $10,000 since he violated it 10 times in the recent weeks.
As for the threat of a lawsuit, it's something he learned from Cohn: to sue critics and detractors every single time. However, it's toothless at this point. He's currently in the middle of fighting dozens of indictments, as well as an ongoing hush-money trial in New York. The former president is set to return to Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom on Tuesday.
The Apprentice is set during Trump's early years and focused mainly on his relationship with Cohn. Their relationship is portrayed as one of mentor-protégé in the midst of accruing power through corruption and deception. As such, it's his origin story. According to reviews, Stan actually makes him likable and portrays him as compassionate. It shouldn't be objectionable to the former president, but then again maybe being likability and compassion are anathema to him.
