Donald Trump doesn’t want you to see this movie

Created in partnership with Studio Canal.

Donald Trump is accustomed to waging war against those who seek to hold him accountable, whether they are his political rivals, the media or law enforcement. Now he has a new battle: trying to keep you from seeing The apprenticea film that lays bare his Faustian relationship with the notoriously unscrupulous political operator Roy Cohn, who made him the divisive mogul we know today. Add to that stories of dalliances with younger women, amphetamines and plastic surgery: welcome to the frightening underbelly of Trump’s increasingly fine-grained comb.

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It may seem surprising that a man with such an insatiable appetite for seeing his name in gold would want to block the release of a film in which he is the inspiration for the protagonist. But the film paints a damning portrait – although dramatized, as the opening credits indicate – of the formation of the ex-president. “We will be taking legal action to address the blatantly false claims made by these fake filmmakers,” Steven Cheung of the Trump campaign said in May. “This garbage is pure fiction that sensationalizes long-debunked lies. » A cease and desist letter was duly sent to the filmmakers, accusing them of “malicious defamation.” Clearly, the filmmakers are real and the film has received acclaim, being described in one review as “the Donald Trump movie you never knew you needed.”

As you might have guessed, Trump’s very anti-free speech attempts to sabotage the release of the film, which already premiered at Cannes, where he received an 11-minute standing ovation, failed . The apprentice is set to be shown in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from October 18, just under a fortnight before the US presidential election which could return Trump to the White House. The film’s director, Ali Abbasi, said he didn’t think Trump, played by Marvel actor Sebastian Stan, would dislike the film, despite a theatrical version of an alleged 1989 rape against his ex- wife Ivana Trump, played by Borat star Maria Bakalova, and the dramatization of her sinister relationship with Cohn, a lawyer and power broker played by Jeremy Strong of Succession fame.

It all began in 1973, at The Club, an exclusive Manhattan bistro, when rising real estate mogul Trump was introduced to Cohn. He quickly took Trump under his wing and gave him advice that would shape his future and change the course of history. Cohn, who would call Trump his best friend, appears to have inspired Trump to keep his skin orange year-round through artificial means, and was the type of mentor you’d get if you ordered Machiavelli on Wish.com. His philosophy – deny, deflect and destroy – fits Trump like a glove, transforming a young tycoon into a master of moral amnesia and the living embodiment of the excessive 1980s culture of “greed is good.” “.

“The government just filed a lawsuit against our company,” Trump recalled telling Cohn during their first meeting, “saying we discriminated against black people…What do you think should I do?” His future mentor responded, “Tell them to go to hell and fight this case in court and let them prove that you discriminated.” » Trump took Cohn’s cynical advice and unsuccessfully sued the Justice Department for $100 million, claiming defamation in an attempt to change the narrative in the press, before settling out of court.

The film tells the disturbing story of how Trump shaped himself into the image of the McCarthyist communist hunter Cohn, almost like the way a son copies his father. Cohn had pushed President Dwight Eisenhower to ban gays from the federal government and left a couple in the electric chair for allegedly spying, although the details remain controversial to this day. The Communist witch hunt, however, ultimately resulted in a political defeat for Cohn, but he nevertheless returned to New York feigning victory after a series of damaging Senate hearings and threw a party in his honor at the Astor Hotel in Times Square. (Never admitting defeat and always claiming victory is an inexpensive, if daring, trick that Trump would try unsuccessfully after his 2020 election defeat.)

Backed by his father’s small fortune, Trump began making billions in the decade when Reaganomics let the rich run wild, hand in hand with Cohn, as crime-ridden New York City and in ruins, was transformed into a glamorous citadel. of today. In 1980, Trump unveiled his first major project: the 1,400-room Grand Hyatt hotel near New York’s Grand Central Station (thanks to a tax break obtained by Cohn), but the solid marble of his other projects was financed with less than solid funds. loans and its foray into the casino business was a disaster.

Throughout this period, Trump – who often presented an image of demure flamboyance in the 1980s – was a regular attendee at Cohn’s parties, where he was adored by the host. It’s ironic, given Trump’s four indictments (and counting), that the guest lists of Cohn’s parties — frequented by politicians, celebrities, wealthy businessmen, mobsters and judges – were described as follows: “If you are indicted, you are invited. »

In 1986, when Cohn died of AIDS-related complications – shortly after being banned from practicing law for trying to alter the will of a dying client in order to enrich himself – Trump would have been the last person he spoke to on the phone. Trump never forgot Cohn, either. The day Trump was elected president in November 2016, he reportedly said to an old friend, “Wouldn’t Roy like to see this moment?” Boy, do we miss him.

Stan, who plays Trump, described the role as “riding a psychotic horse in a flamboyant stable” and has been tipped alongside co-star Strong as a major awards season contender, with early rumors suggesting he could be in the running for a Best Actor nomination next year. The hype around the film is only growing, and Trump – who still wears those weird 1980s suit jackets with gigantic shoulder pads – is all too aware that this could be the moment when people finally see through this unique window into his psyche. Trump hasn’t seen it himself yet, but the inevitable tantrum in response to the film he tried to block could define his legacy and the future of the world as a whole.

The apprentice is exclusively in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from October 18. https://www.theapprenticefilm.co.uk