Ali Abbasi’s new film, The Apprenticeis a Biographical drama about Donald Trump in the 1970s, raising questions about the presidential nominee’s idea about the movie. The Apprentice The cast is led by Sebastian Stan, who plays a young version of Donald Trump, with the film exploring his early days in the business world in the 1970s under the guidance of New York City prosecutor Roy Coun (Jeremy Strong). After premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in May, The Apprentice is released in theaters in October 2024.
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With its release date of October 11, The Apprentice In theaters less than a month before the 2024 election, a likely strategic choice. While The Apprentice Reviews are mostly positive, His interpretation of a major contemporary political figure makes it an inherently divisive release. The film’s position right before the election, when Donald Trump’s life is being scrutinized more carefully than ever, added fuel to the conversation, and the former president himself joined in.
Donald Trump’s campaign says Apprentice is ‘blatantly false’
Trump’s campaign verbally attacked the student and discouraged audiences from viewing it
After the Cannes Film Festival screening The ApprenticeDonald Trump’s re-election campaign responded with equal fury and threats (via Variety). Trump campaign spokesperson Stephen Cheung addressed the content of Abbasi’s film, saying, “This garbage is pure fiction that sensationalizes lies that have long been debunked.” This refers to several controversial moments in the movie, including a violent sexual assault scene, references to Trump abusing amphetamines, and a scene of Trump undergoing plastic surgery to remove a bald spot. Cheung added that the Trump campaign will file lawsuits in response to the film’s claims.
Later in May, Trump’s Dhillon Law Group added to the complaints (via Term) with a Statement referring to The Apprentice like “A collection of lies that repeatedly defame President Trump and constitute direct foreign interference in America’s elections” Also add threats of a lawsuit. In this case, “foreign interference” refers to the distribution of the film is a joint effort between companies from the United States, Canada, Ireland and Denmark, a fairly common practice for independent movie releases. The Apprentice Producers suggest his movie takes a fair and balanced approach to its portrayal of Donald Trump and the current political situation.
Donald Trump called the Apprentice movie a ‘politically disgusting hatchet job’
The former president shared his thoughts about the movie
On top of the Trump campaign’s comments on The ApprenticeThe presidential candidate himself revealed his idea after its release. On October 14, Trump shared his thoughts on the social media platform, TrueDelivering ideas consistently with his team. He stated that the film is “fake and classless,” Call the fact-checking behind The Apprentice to ask. While much of the film was backed up by reliable sources, Trump and his campaign have now both debunked it. Read Donald Trump’s full message below:
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 is a cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hack job, set out right before the 2024 presidential election, to try and undermine the greatest political movement in the history of our country, “Make America Great Again!” My ex-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 lowly and talentless hack who has long been widely criticized, knew this, but he chose to ignore it. So sad that human rights scams, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want to hurt a political movement that is much bigger than any of us. MAGA2024!
In his social media statement, Donald Trump has expressed his hopes that the film will fail financially, calling it “cheap” and “diplomatic”. However, he did not follow through on his campaign’s statement from May about pursuing legal action against the project. Trump also targets Gabe Sherman, a journalist for Vanity Fair And New York Magazine who made his feature film writing debut with The Apprentice.
Has Donald Trump seen the Apprentice movie?
Trump talked about the film, but who knows if he actually saw it?
Donald Trump has released his statement about The ApprenticeHowever He never specified that he saw it. In 2020, Trump was asked about comedian Sarah Cooper’s impersonations of him (via CNN), to which he responded by saying that he would not be interested in seeing negative interpretations of him. It is possible that he took the word of his campaign and legal team on The Apprentice And wouldn’t really be in to see the film.
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His tweet highlights the tumultuous relationship between him and his late ex-wife Ivana Trump, but there is nothing in his message that follows the comments his team has already made. It wouldn’t be a huge stretch of the imagination to suggest Donald Trump hasn’t seen the movie, but it’s only speculation based on his wording. In response to criticism after Cannes May, Abbasi offered to show the film to Trump and discuss his interpretation One-on-one (by Variety). According to Abbasi’s recent update, Trump never took him up on the offer.
Ali Abbasi responded to Trump’s statement
After Donald Trump’s statement about The ApprenticeDirector Ali Abbasi took to X to give an answer. The filmmaker expressed his appreciation for Trump’s review, then offered to “Keep talking“If the former president was interested. It does not appear that Trump’s team had any direct contact with Absi regarding the matter. Read Abbasi’s full quote from X below:
Back in May, Ali Abbasi said: “I don’t necessarily think this is a movie he wouldn’t have liked“, about the image of the former president in The Apprentice. Although he takes a more humanistic approach to Donald Trump than previous interpretations, the film is quite simple in comparing the politician and businessman to a monster. Abbasi also suggested to the Cannes audience that “There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising tide of fascism.” So it seems like his thoughts on the matter are pretty clear.