The film “The Apprentice”, starring Sebastian Stan as a younger Donald Trump, has made waves in both Hollywood and Washington, D.C., since its May 2024 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film helped Stan and co-star Jeremy Strong earn their first Oscar nominations for playing Trump and New York City lawyer Roy Cohn, respectively.
The story follows Stan as a younger Trump in the 1970s and 1980s — then an ambitious businessman — as he befriends power lawyer and political “fixer” Cohn. Cohn and Trump’s blossoming friendship takes center stage in the film as the future president looks to Cohn for personal and professional guidance while building his real estate empire.
Trump has expressed displeasure with the film and its portrayal of him, and his team has also threatened legal action against the movie.
Stan, Strong and the film’s director Ali Abbasi have all responded to Trump’s comments on the film.
Below, read what Trump has said about the movie and the film’s response.
Trump calls ‘The Apprentice’ a ‘fake’ and ‘classless’ film
President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Feb. 18, 2025. Sebastian Stan in “The Apprentice,” 2024.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters | Briarcliff Entertainment
“The Apprentice” first premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2024, before receiving a wider theatrical release in the U.S. in October.
In an early morning social media post on Oct. 14, then-presidential candidate Trump skewered the film, rejecting its accuracy — particularly its portrayal of him — and expressing his hope that the film, which he called “fake and classless,” would fail at the box office.
“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!'” he wrote at the time.
He also addressed the film’s portrayal of his relationship with his first wife, the late Ivana Trump, to whom he was married from 1977 to 1990. The film depicts the pair’s courtship and ensuing deteriorating relationship and contains a rape scene based on Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, in which she accused her estranged husband of allegedly raping her once. Ivana Trump walked back the allegation, which was also referenced in the 1993 biography “Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump” by Harry Hurt III, on multiple occasions prior to her death in 2022. President Trump has denied the rape allegation, saying in a statement at the time “Lost Tycoon” was published that allegation was “obviously false.”
“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,” President Trump wrote in his October social media post.
Trump team threatens legal action against ‘The Apprentice’
Trump’s campaign team threatened legal action against the film in May 2024, according to multiple reports.
“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s then-chief campaign spokesperson, who became White House communications director when Trump took office for a second term in January, said in a statement to Variety at the time. “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”
“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,” the statement read.
According to Variety, Trump’s attorneys sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers in May, in hopes of blocking its release in the U.S.
In response to the letter, the producers of the film stated to Variety, “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president.”
The producers added, “We want everyone to see it and then decide.”
Sebastian Stan responds to Trump’s criticism
This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Maria Bakalova, left, and Sebastian Stan in a scene from the film “The Apprentice.”
Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment via AP
The film’s star Stan responded to Trump’s criticism and threats in an interview with NPR’s “Fresh Air” podcast with Terry Gross in February.
“If the movie is really just sort of so irrelevant, then why warrant that reaction from him to begin with?” Stan replied when asked about Trump’s reaction to the film.
“It might be because the truth hurts, and there is something truthful to the movie, one of them probably being that, you know, he doesn’t like anyone else taking credit for the way he is,” he continued.
Stan also addressed Trump’s post in an Oct. 15 interview with On Demand Entertainment at the BFI London Film Festival.
“It’s disappointing,” he said at the time. “I think it’s also unsettling how easily he can toss around such terrible words. But it’s also very predictable — he’s so negative and just continues to want to divide people, because that’s when he feels he has any relevance.”
In an interview earlier this month with the New York Times, Stan called his portrayal of Trump “a well-crafted character built from rage and years of suppression.”
He also speculated on Trump’s displeasure with the film, suggesting that “one of the issues he’s probably had with the film is it really shows you the opportunistic evolution of this person.”
Stan claimed the fear surrounding the sensitivities of this film became apparent when he said he couldn’t find a partner to discuss the film for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, where stars discuss their films with each other.
“I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me, because they were too afraid to go and talk about this movie, so I couldn’t do it,” he said at a screening in November speaking alongside Abbasi, who reposted the video on social media. “That’s not pointing at anyone specific, it was we couldn’t get past the publicists, who were the people representing them.”
Variety reported it could not match Stan with another actor for the project.
Jeremy Strong weighs in on Trump’s comments
This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan in a scene from the film “The Apprentice.”
Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment via AP
In October, after Trump’s post about the film, Strong told the BBC he felt he was in a “slightly precarious and slightly dangerous” situation.
“Art is meant to speak truth to power. We don’t often do that with consequences. The specter of consequences weighs heavily on me,” he said.
Strong also claimed that writer Gabriel Sherman had been on the receiving end of death threats and antisemitic hate after Trump’s post.
In an interview with Variety in early October, Strong also called the film a “Frankenstein” movie in the way he said it handles Cohn’s creation of the modern-day Trump.
“It’s a monster movie. It’s a Frankenstein movie. It’s about the creation of a monster by another monster,” he said at the time.
‘The Apprentice’ director responds to Trump’s comments
“The Apprentice” director Abbasi responded to Trump’s rebuke of the film on X on Oct. 14, 2024.
“Thanks for getting back to us @realDonaldTrump,” he wrote at the time. “I am available to talk further if you want. Today is a tight day w a lot of press for #TheApprentice but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow.”
Abbasi also elaborated on his reaction to Trump’s comments in October on the CBC podcast “Q With Tom Power.”
“I have to say, I don’t understand why he’s so angry…. [We] try to depict him in a human way, complex way with a lot of nuances, a lot of care. So I think I was expecting a thank-you letter or something like that,” he said.
