“The Apprentice,” a film depicting a young Donald Trump’s rise to power in the 1970s and 1980s while being mentored and influenced by attorney Roy Cohn. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. It has an ensemble cast and features Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn. It is widely considered to be a negative portrayal of the former president. 

“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 posted on Truth Social. “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!’”

Trump also took issue with the movie’s portrayal of his former wife, Ivana, and he claimed the film’s writer, Gabe Sherman, was “widely discredited” after several insults.

“My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died,” Trump said in the social media post. “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. MAGA2024!”

While the film drew the former president’s attention, it did not do so with moviegoers, faring poorly with audiences. “The Apprentice” finished its opening weekend in a lowly tenth place at the box office, earning only $1.6 million in ticket sales, according to the Associated Press.