Given former President Donald Trump’s litigious nature, it was hardly a surprise the former president would greet a movie devoted to his formative years as a real-estate mogul with threats of legal action against “blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” as Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung noted in May. Despite that customarily aggressive claim, I’d argue the Republican presidential nominee does have good reasons to not want people to see “The Apprentice,” which arrives in movie theaters this week.
It was hardly a surprise the former president would greet a movie devoted to his formative years as a real-estate mogul with threats of legal action.
The film’s most shocking and visceral scene depicts the fictional Trump raping his then-wife Ivana, which the real Trump and Ivana deny happened (more on this below). It’s a moment likely to dominate the conversation. But in terms of understanding what makes Trump tick, and his often-casual relationship with facts, the rest of the film is unflattering in timely and pointedly significant ways.
Written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, and directed by Ali Abbasi (whose credits include the film “Border” and episodes of HBO’s “The Last of Us”), the film mostly centers on Trump’s pivotal relationship with Roy Cohn, the red-baiting attorney whose tutelage provides the title with a double meaning, given the TV show that forged and gilded Trump’s image. “The Apprentice” introduces the young Trump character (played by Sebastian Stan) as he seeks to escape the shadow of his domineering father, gradually doing so with considerable help from Cohn, portrayed with over-the-top gusto by “Succession’s” Jeremy Strong.
Cohn spots Trump across a crowded, posh club and takes him under his wing, helping him first with a lawsuit involving allegations of discriminatory renting practices at his rundown apartment buildings, and later with his ambitious development plans in New York.
“You’re the client, but you work for me,” the imperious Cohn tells him. “That means you do what I say, when I say it.”
As presented in the film, Cohn — who was basically a mob lawyer at the time — will do anything to win, up to and including bullying and blackmailing city officials. What “The Apprentice” really captures, though, is how Trump learned from Cohn, adopting and internalizing his rules of public combat: “1. Attack, attack, attack. 2. Admit nothing, deny everything. 3. No matter what happens, you claim victory, and never admit defeat.”
Although “The Apprentice” takes the usual dramatic liberties in adapting a fact-based story to the screen, a lot of the broad strokes have been chronicled in earlier projects like the 2019 documentary “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” The title quotes Trump during his time in the White House, with author Michael Wolff reporting that he would occasionally ask aloud “Where’s my Roy Cohn,” frustrated by his inability to find lawyers who would represent him in the bare-knuckled manner that Cohn did.
As is so often the case (and any “Star Wars” fan can recognize), the apprentice eventually became the master. And Cohn’s fading health due to AIDS turns him into one of the many people Trump uses and discards on his climb to the top.
While far from humble when he meets Cohn, Trump is still developing his trademark swagger. Cohn is shown squiring Trump around and introducing him to all the right people, including Andy Warhol, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, political operative Roger Stone and publishing mogul Rupert Murdoch (“Rupert is gonna be key for you,” Cohn tells him). Apart from Cohn, the film also explores Trump’s relationship with first wife Ivana, whom he aggressively pursues, marries and eventually grows tired of. Their deteriorating relationship culminates in the brutal encounter she cited in a deposition related to their divorce, which, as The New Yorker detailed, she first sought to clarify, then later disavowed as a story “without merit.” (Ivana is portrayed by Maria Bakalova, who first gained attention for her role in the “Borat” sequel and her hotel-room interaction with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.) Trump’s campaign has dismissed “The Apprentice” as “pure fiction” and “malicious defamation.” Trump’s campaign has dismissed “The Apprentice” as “pure fiction” and “malicious defamation.” Still, any studious observer of Trump can see how its broad underpinnings ring true, particularly Cohn’s counsel to claim victory no matter what, and his declarations “There is no ‘Truth,’ with a capital T” and “Truth is a malleable thing.” Trump’s behavior in public life, certainly over the last decade, reinforces how he took those lessons to heart. When the truth doesn’t matter, lying becomes not just a strategy but a kind of protective armor. “The Apprentice” is, in that sense, the oldest of origin stories, where the mentor discovers the hard way how well he accomplished his task.
Brian Lowry
Brian Lowry is a media columnist and critic, most recently at CNN, and before that Variety and the Los Angeles Times. 
