The Apprentice Review: A Trump No One Has Seen Before

The
Apprentice
is
a
keenly
observed
and
entertaining
biopic
about
the
making
of
a
man
who
is
mostly
responsible
for
all
that
has
gone
wrong
with
current
American
politics,
observes
Aseem
Chhabra.

Towards
the
middle
of
Ali
Abbasi’s
film

The
Apprentice,
Donald
J
Trump
(played
with
great
finesse
by
Sebastian
Stan)
is
sitting
on
his
bed
with
his
first
wife
Ivana
(Maria
Bakalova).

The
two
have
just
returned
from
the
funeral
of
Trump’s
older
brother
Fred,
a
failed
pilot,
and
an
alcoholic
who
had
dropped
out
of
society.
The
year
is
1981.

Trump
looks
disturbed
and
as
a
caring
gesture
Ivana
touches
his
arm.
And
suddenly,
the
man
has
a
fit
and
breaks
down
crying.

Can
you
imagine
Donald
J
Trump
—
the
45th
president
of
the
United
States,
twice
impeached,
indicted
on
various
criminal
charges
and
found
guilty
on
34
counts
by
a
jury
in
New
York
City
for
payment
of
hush
money
to
a
porn
actor
in
his
attempt
to
influence
the
2016
election
—
crying,
even
if
it
is
in
his
private
moment?

Not
if
you
follow
the
public
life
and
career
of
the
man,
who
refused
to
accept
defeat
in
the
2020
elections,
has
disregard
for
the
American
constitution
and
is
once
again
trying
to
become
the
president
of
America
(and
he
may
just
win).

In
his
new
film,
Iranian
Danish
film-maker
Abbasi
(Border,
Holy
Spider)
gives
us
few
such
moments,
showing
a
human,
vulnerable
side
of
his
protagonist,
one
of
the
most
controversial
figures
of
our
times.

The
Apprentice
was
the
title
of
the
popular
reality
television
show
that
ran
on
NBC
from
2004
to
2017,
and
made
Trump
a
household
name
across
America.
Each
episode
would
end
with
one
of
the
contestants
being
eliminated
from
the
show
with
Trump
uttering
the
infamous
words,
‘You’re
fired!’

In
a
recent
article,
the
chief
marketing
executive
of
the
show
wrote
an
apology
for
helping
create
a
substantially
exaggerated
‘false
narrative’
of
a
‘super-successful
businessman’
who
he
described
as
a
‘monster’.

Abbasi’s
film
starts
in
the
early
1970s
when
Trump
was
essentially
doing
the
dirty
job
for
his
father’s
real
estate
company,
going
door-to-door
collecting
rent
from
poor,
retired,
people
and
threating
to
evict
them.

The
Trump
company
was
being
sued
by
New
York
City
for
its
alleged
discriminatory
practice
against
potential
black
tenants.

This
is
when
Trump
sought
the
assistance
of
Roy
Cohen,
a
ruthless
lawyer
and
prosecutor
who
first
came
into
prominence
during
the
1954
McCarthy
hearings
which
was
set
up
to
track
American
communists
in
various
walks
of
life.

Cohen
was
very
well
connected.
In
one
early
scene
in
the
film,
his
party
guests
include
the
artist
Andy
Warhol,
New
York
Yankees
Owner
George
Steinbrenner,
the
conservative
media
mogul
Rupert
Murdoch
and
Ed
Koch,
mayor
of
New
York
City.

So
it
is
no
surprise
that
Cohen
was
able
to
get
a
reversal
on
the
charges
against
Trump’s
company.

But
the
Donald
Trump
who
met
Cohen
(a
wonderful,
edgy
performance
by
Jeremy
Strong
with
shades
of
his
Kendell
Roy
in

Succession)
in
the
1970s
was
a
raw,
insecure
person
from
Queens,
New
York
who
hardly
knew
anyone
in
Manhattan’s
high
society.

In
a
hilarious
scene,
Trump
talks
to
Warhol
at
the
party
hosted
by
Cohen
and
asks
what
he
does.
Upon
learning
that
Warhol
is
an
artist,
Trump
then
questions
him
further:
‘What
kind
of
art?’

‘Anything
I
can
sell,’
Warhol
says.

For
some
inexplicable
reason,
Cohen
took
a
liking
to
Trump
and
almost
adopted
him
like
a
son.

As
we
learn
from
Abbasi’s
film,
everything
that
Trump
picked
up
and
learned
in
the
cut-throat
world
of
business,
finance
and
politics,
he
owed
it
to
Cohen.

It
is
clear
that
Cohen
was
not
attracted
to
Trump.
Cohen
was
a
gay
man
and
lived
a
promiscuous
lifestyle
where
he
threw
wild
gay
parties.

At
the
same
time,
he
was
known
to
blackmail
closeted
gay
public
officials:
A
skill
he
picked
up
during
the
McCarthy
hearings.

Abbasi
and
his
writer
Gabriel
Sherman
paint
a
stark
portrayal
of
Trump
from
the
naïve
businessman
to
a
real
estate
tycoon,
who
over-extended
himself
by
building
the
Hyatt
Grand
Central
Hotel
and
the
vanity
protect,
Trump
Tower
in
Manhattan,
to
casinos
in
Atlantic
City.

But
Abbasi
and
Sherman
reserve
their
special
creative
skills
to
develop
a
captivating
three-dimensional
and
complex
Cohen
—
a
despicable
character,
whose
life
ended
up
like
in
a
Shakespearean
tragedy.
He
died
of
AIDS
related
complications,
rejected
by
his
mentee,
Donald
Trump.

A
very
different
and
a
much
more
scathing
persona
of
Cohen
was
written
as
one
of
the
main
characters
in
Tony
Kushner’s
two-part
play

Angels
in
America
(Cohen
was
played
by
Al
Pacino
in
the
HBO
series
based
on
the
play),
a
liar
and
cheat
who
got
his
friend
Nancy
Reagan
to
jump
hoops
through
Washington,
DC’s
bureaucratic
machinery
to
get
AIDS
medication
that
was
in
extreme
short
supply.

Abbasi
also
introduces
us
to
Ivana,
Trump’s
first
wife
and
the
mother
of
his
three
older
children.

There
was
sweet
romance
between
the
two,
but
Donald
soon
lost
interest
in
Ivana.

In
one
of
the
most
controversial
and
difficult
to
watch
scenes
in
the
film,
covered
extensively
in
the
media,
Trump
rapes
his
wife.

Ivana
accused
Trump
of
rape
in
her
divorce
documents,
although
later
she
withdrew
her
accusation.
She
wrote
in
her
memoir
that
she
had
a
good
relationship
with
her
ex-husband.

Ever
since

The
Apprentice
premiered
at
Cannes
this
summer,
Trump
has
been
threatening
to
sue
Abbasi
and
his
producers
and
get
the
film
banned.

His
threats
delayed
the
film
from
getting
a
distribution
deal
in
the
US.

But
Trump’s
wish
may
have
come
true,
since

The
Apprentice
did
not
perform
well
in
its
opening
weekend
in
the
US
box
office.

It’s
unfortunate
because

The
Apprentice
is
a
keenly
observed
and
entertaining
biopic
about
the
making
of
a
man
who
is
mostly
responsible
for
all
that
has
gone
wrong
with
current
American
politics.

It
should
be
watched
by
audiences
who
are
fascinated
by
how
Trump
has
had
so
much
impact
on
our
lives.