Trump campaign plans to file lawsuit over ‘The Apprentice’ movie: ‘Should not see the light of day’
A Trump campaign spokesman blasted the controversial new movie, “The Apprentice,” that depicts the 45th president’s rise to fame — and said that a lawsuit will be filed against the filmmakers.
“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told The Post.
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” he added.
“The Apprentice,” which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, purports to be inspired by true events in its telling of Donald Trump’s rise to prominence in New York high society during the 1970s and 1980s.
The film, directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, includes the shocking scene in which Trump violently rapes his late ex-wife, Ivana.
Ivana Trump, who died in July 2022, alleged a sexual assault in her 1989 divorce deposition, but she retracted the claim more than 25 years later.
“The story is totally without merit,” Ivana said in a July 2015 statement, which was released about a month after her ex-husband launched his first presidential campaign.
“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,” Cheung’s statement to The Post continued.
The Trump campaign adviser argued that the premiere of the movie, less than six months before the 77-year-old former president takes on President Biden at the ballot box, amounts to “election interference.”
“As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked,” Cheung said.
US distribution rights for “The Apprentice” have not yet been sold.
The film stars Sebastian Stan as young Donald Trump and Maria Bakalova as Ivana.
Jeremy Strong, of “Succession” fame, also plays a prominent role, as Roy Cohn, Trump’s ruthless former lawyer and fixer.
One of the film’s investors, billionaire Dan Snyder, was reportedly “furious” with how it depicted the presumptive Republican nominee for president, according to Variety.
The former Washington Commanders owner, who is friends with Trump, was apparently expecting the movie to be a “flattering portrayal of the 45th president,” the outlet said.
