“The Apprentice” director Ali Abbasi is here to talk if you need to, Donald Trump.
Abbasi has weathered numerous digs from the former president, including a threatened lawsuit. In turn, “The Apprentice” producers launched a Kickstarter campaign to cover anticipated legal fees, as well as to increase marketing and host screenings of their film ahead of the 2024 election.
Now, Abbasi is asking Trump if he finally wants to bury the hatchet (after Trump called “The Apprentice” a “hatchet job,” no less) — sort of. In response to Trump’s latest tirade against the film, Abbasi tweeted, “Thanks for getting back to us, Donald Trump. I am available to talk further if you want. Today is a tight day w a lot of press for ‘The Apprentice,’ but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow.”
Abbasi’s film follows Trump — portrayed by Sebastian Stan — during the late ’70s and early ’80s as he is mentored by late right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).
“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 wrote on alternative social media platform 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’s marriage to Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova) and his relationship with father Fred Trump Sr. (Martin Donovan) are also fictionalized onscreen, which further angered the former reality show (“The Apprentice”) host. In this “The Apprentice,” Stan’s Trump is shown sexually assaulting Ivana.
“My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died,” Trump continued in his statement. “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!”
In a real-life 2023 civil trial, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Trump contends he does not know Carroll.
“The Apprentice” had its world premiered at Cannes in May 2024. The film opened in theaters October 11.
The Trump campaign’s chief spokesperson Steven Cheung previously said in a statement to Variety that the film was “garbage” and “pure fiction [that] sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”
The statement further reads, “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.”
Abbasi recently told IndieWire that he “would be super excited” to know what Trump “thinks of the movie either way.” Well, he may have just gotten his wish.
“Do I think he’s gonna love it? Probably not,” Abbasi said. “Do I think he’s gonna hate it? I don’t think so. Honestly, I think he would see our desire to depict them as human beings and whatever he thinks of that, I would be excited to hear what he thinks. And he probably has a lot of things that I got wrong he wants to bash me with.”
