All the drama surrounding Trump’s new movie ‘The Apprentice’

Still not sure who this Donald Trump guy really is? Now you can finally learn the origin story of the former and possibly future president via a biopic Student. For months, it looked like American audiences would never see the film, as it struggled to find a distributor and faced legal threats from Trump’s team. But now the film is set to hit theaters in the U.S. in October, just weeks before Election Day. Here’s a guide to all the ongoing controversies surrounding the film.

After appearing at several film festivals, Student will hit cinemas nationwide on October 11, 2024.

Student is a drama about how a young Donald Trump built his business in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was mentored by the infamous, ruthless lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn. The script was written by journalist Gabriel Sherman and directed by Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi.

Abbasi told TheWrap that in addition to telling the story of how Cohn helped Trump “become the person we know today,” the film is also “a story of the system, a story of the American system, the legal system, the inherent corruption in the system that allowed people like Roy Cohn to move freely and kind of pull the levers of power as they saw fit.”

Donald Trump is played by Sebastian Stan, who you probably know as Bucky Barnes from the Marvel movies.

Roy Cohn is played by Jeremy Strong, who won an Emmy for his role as Kendall Roy in Inheritance.

Ivana Trump is played by Maria Bakalova, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the 2020 film. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

According to the cast list, the film also features Trump’s parents and siblings, Roger Stone, Andy Warhol, Ed Koch, Rupert Murdoch, and Ivanka Trump as a child, but don’t expect to see all of the characters from the MAGA world we know today.

Yes. In the first trailer, released on September 10, Cohn coaches Trump on a New York City trek, the two end up in a fight, and Trump hears Ronald Reagan deliver his “Make America Great Again!” speech.

Dan Snyder, billionaire and former owner of the NFL’s Washington Commanders football team, has invested money in Student through film production company Kinematics because he “was impressed that it was a flattering portrayal of the 45th president,” he claims Diversity. Snyder is a friend of Trump and has donated $1.1 million to his 2016 presidential inaugural committee and the Victory Fund, as well as $100,000 to his 2020 re-election campaign. So he wasn’t thrilled to discover that the video shows Trump taking amphetamines, getting liposuction, raping Ivana, and developing a variety of repulsive traits. Diversity reported in May 2024:

Snyder finally saw a cut of the film in February and was reportedly furious. Kinematics lawyers were called in to fight the release of “The Apprentice,” and cease-and-desist letters began flying. Kinematics CEO Emanuel Nuñez insists the creative impasse between his company and the filmmakers did not involve Snyder. “All creative and business decisions regarding ‘The Apprentice’ have always been, and continue to be, made solely by Kinematics. Mark and I run our company without any other third parties.”

While Snyder’s level of involvement is a matter of debate, following the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Student struggled to find a distributor in the U.S. Some — most notably Michelle Goldberg of New York Times —raised concerns that the film was being suppressed for political reasons. But by late summer, Kinematics had sold its stake in the film, and independent distributor Briarcliff Entertainment had struck a deal to release it in the U.S. and Canada. THR reported on August 30:

At last, THR learned that Kinematics’ shares in the film were bought by Student producer James Shani, whose company Rich Spirit is among the film’s backers, and Rich Spirit and Briarcliff will collaborate on the theatrical release.

No, but he threatened to do so.

Trump’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers Student in order to block the premiere of the film, Diversity reported in May. But as is often the case, Trump’s team has yet to act on the legal threat.

As Deadline reports, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung has repeatedly issued the same statement condemning the film in recent months across several media outlets:

“This garbage is pure fiction that sensationally rehashes lies that have long since been debunked,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told Deadline …

“Like Kamala’s illegal witch hunt, this is election interference by Hollywood elites just before November who know that President Trump will take back the White House and defeat their candidate because nothing they’ve done has worked. This “movie” is pure malicious defamation, should never have seen the light of day, and does not even deserve a place in the DVD section of the bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed movie store; it belongs in the trash.”

Yes, Ivana accused Donald of rape in her 1990 divorce deposition. However, she recanted it several years later (and again during Trump’s first presidential campaign), saying that while she used the word “rape,” she didn’t want it to be “interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”

Ivana’s accusation first came to light in an unauthorized 1993 biography. The Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. TrumpAuthor Harry Hurt III obtained a copy of Ivana’s 1990 divorce deposition, in which she testified that Donald raped her in a fit of rage the previous year. The Lost Tycoon is currently unavailable, but The Daily Beast summarized the relevant portions in 2016:

A book by a former Texas Monthly AND Newsweek rReporter Harry Hurt III described a harrowing scene. After undergoing painful scalp reduction surgery to remove his bald spot, Donald Trump confronted his then-wife, who had previously used the same plastic surgeon.

“Your fucking doctor ruined me!” Trump shouted.

What happened next was reportedly a “brutal attack.” The Lost Tycoon. Donald held Ivana’s arms and began pulling handfuls of hair from her head, as if to mirror the pain he felt after his surgery. He ripped off her clothes and unbuttoned his pants.

“He then thrusts his penis inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. Ivana is horrified… It is a brutal attack,” Hurt writes. “According to the version he tells some of his closest confidantes, ‘he raped me.’”

After the incident, Ivana ran upstairs, hid behind a closed door, and stayed there “crying for the rest of the night.” When she returned to the master bedroom in the morning, he was there.

“As she stared in horror at the torn hairs scattered all over the bed, he glared at her and asked with menacing indifference, ‘Does it hurt?’” Hurt writes.

Donald has repeatedly denied both the rape allegations and the claims that he underwent a scalp reduction procedure. Just before The Lost Tycoon was published, Donald Trump’s legal team provided a statement from Ivana, which appears on the front page of the book.

“During my testimony in connection with my marital case, I stated that my husband raped me,” Ivana’s statement reads. “Once in 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he acted toward me in a completely different manner than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated because the love and tenderness he normally showed toward me was absent. I called this ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”

Ivana issued another denial when the allegations resurfaced during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. She told CNN:

I recently read comments attributed to me from almost 30 years ago, during a very tense period during my divorce from Donald. This story is completely unfounded. Donald and I are best friends and have raised three children together whom we love and are very proud of. I have nothing but sympathy for Donald and wish him well in his campaign. By the way, I think he would make a terrific president.

Ivana dismissed the rape accusation while promoting her book in 2017, saying: Time“It was all just lawyer talk.” Ivana died in 2022 at the age of 73. She remained on good terms with Donald and was buried at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

In addition to Ivana, more than 20 other women have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment. In May 2023, a Manhattan jury ruled that Trump was liable for sexual harassment and defamation against E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape.

The general consensus is that the lead actors give great performances, especially Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan. The New York FastingJohnny Oleksinski of Deadline called Strong “excellent,” adding, “He’s Roy three times over: a combination of Roy Cohn, Kendall Roy, and Logan Roy that could tear you apart in one breath.” Pete Hammond of Deadline said, “Stan slowly steps into the role, suggesting a young Trump without venturing into SNL-like an imitation. He captured it precisely and credibly throughout.”

But the film may not tell you much about Trump that you haven’t pieced together since he dominated American political discourse for nearly a decade. “At this point, Trump and every political pundit with airtime have made it clear who he is and how he got to that position,” Maureen Lee Lenker writes in Entertainment per week“The most disturbing aspect Student how familiar all this is to us already and how insensitive we are to its corruption.”

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