Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has sharply criticized the makers of the biopic The Apprentice after claims that he brutally sexually assaulted his ex-wife Ivana came to light.
The film, starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Republican operative Roy Cohn, leads a nauseating scene in which Trump throws Ivana, his first wife, to the floor and sexually assaults her as she screams for him to stop.
While the scene has already sparked controversy, Trump today broke his silence on the film, which premiered in the U.S. on Friday, claiming that he and his ex-wife, who died in 2022, had a “great relationship… for a while.” on the day of her death.
He wrote on Truth Social: “A FAKE and CLASSLESS movie written about me called The Apprentice (do they even have the right to use that name without permission?) will hopefully “bomb.”
“This is a cheap, defamatory and politically nasty job done just before the 2024 presidential election to hurt the greatest political movement in our country's history: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
“My ex-wife Ivana was a nice and wonderful person, I had a great relationship with her until she died. The author of this pile of garbage, Gabe Sherman, a lowlife and talentless hacker who has long been widely discredited, knew this but chose to ignore it.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (pictured right) has slammed the makers of biopic The Apprentice after claims came to light that he brutally sexually assaulted his ex-wife Ivana (pictured left)
Starring Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump (pictured left) and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump (pictured right)
“It is sad that HUMAN scum, as well as the people involved in this hopefully failed endeavor, can say and do whatever they like to harm a political movement that is much bigger than any of us.”
The scene in “The Apprentice” was taken from a court deposition given by Ivana during her 1990 divorce from Trump, which she later rescinded in 2015 during his first presidential campaign.
According to Harry Hurt III, a journalist covering the case, Trump was furious that the “scalp reduction” he requested to remove his bald spot was painful.
Furious with Ivana for recommending the surgeon, according to Hurt, Trump ripped out a handful of his wife's hair and began sexually assaulting her.
The next morning he asked her menacingly, “Does it hurt?”
According to the film's screenwriter Gabriel Sherman: “the scene she described in the divorce papers was actually much more graphic and brutal than what we dramatized in the film.
Both Trump and the film's funder Dan Snyder, a close billionaire and friend of the GOP candidate, unsuccessfully filed cease-and-desist letters so the film could be preserved.
Snyder financed the film expecting it to portray Trump favorably.
But the pair may not have to worry about anyone seeing the film, given its disappointing opening weekend box office results.
Sebastian Stan (left) plays the businessman-turned-politician, Jeremy Strong plays his lawyer Roy Cohn, and Maria Bakalova (right) plays Trump's ex-wife Ivana
Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice” received largely positive reviews from critics, who praised it as a “joyful” and fast-paced story with strong performances
Ivana (pictured left) was the wife of Donald Trump (pictured right) from 1977 to 1990
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.
It grossed just $1.58 million despite a production budget of $16 million and opening in 1,750 theaters.
The results on its opening day were particularly disappointing, as the film grossed around $150,000 on Thursday.
Despite these challenges, the film, which stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Republican operative Roy Cohn, has received mostly positive reviews.
Meanwhile, according to reports, production company Briarcliff Entertainment is going to put the film up for awards consideration.
In a largely positive review, The New York Times called the film “gleefully vulgar” and said there was a “startling” resemblance between the main characters, Sebastian and Jeremy, and the real men they play.
Reviewer Manohla Dargis wrote, “Each actor clearly carefully studied his character's real-life counterpart, his mannerisms, the way he moved, and especially his voice.”
She added: “The film invites you to laugh at its extremes, vanity and boasting. The one thing the filmmakers don't prepare you for, even though you should know better, is the enormity of the American tragedy that quickly unfolds before you,” she added. .'
