Sebastian Stan sitting in a car with Jeremy Strong in the Apprentice
(Tailored Films)

‘A FAKE and CLASSLESS movie’: Donald Trump is big mad about ‘The Apprentice’

The Apprentice is here and Donald Trump isn’t loving the new Sebastian Stan movie. The Ali Abbasi film shows the rise of Donald Trump (Stan) and his friendship with Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Trump responded to the film on Truth Social and…well, he’s mad about it. Big mad.

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While the film takes liberties with how Trump and Cohn operated in the 80s, it is still a look into the rise of the monster that is Trump (and Cohn was). However, the man in question clearly did not enjoy it. His post started with “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.'”

Trump seems to think the movie was a hit job. Honestly, there are aspects of this film that I feel are almost too sympathetic to Trump and then Cohn. The two men, in my eyes, are literal villains of the 80s, New York, and America. So take that as you will.

In Trump’s post, he went on to say it was a hit job on his political campaign right before the election. “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!'”

Director Ali Abbasi responded to Trump, posting on X that he could maybe give him a call to chat about the film.

Trump was mad about the Ivana storyline

In the film, Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, was played by Maria Bakalova. She is painted in a wonderful light but what Trump had a problem with was a scene in which it is insinuated that he sexually assaulted her in their marriage. Stan’s take on Trump also cheats on her multiple times and talks about how he is not attracted to her at all.

Trump wrote that the two did not have a bad relationship. “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.”

Gabe Sherman is not a talentless hack nor is he widely discredited, as far as I can tell. This is, seemingly, just Trump being angry at how the movie painted him. The reality is that The Apprentice paints Trump in two ways. The first is him as a younger man trying to make his own name and fortune in New York City. After that, we see the “mogul” he became and how he lied and cheated his way to the top.

Frankly, I don’t care what Trump actually thinks about the movie but if The Apprentice made him mad, it clearly struck a chord with him. Hopefully, it also shows others the kind of monster Trump always has been.


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Rachel Leishman
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Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.