‘The Apprentice’ director Ali Abbasi fires back at Trump's lawsuit threats

"The Apprentice," directed by Ali Abbasi and premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, has quickly become a focal point of controversy, drawing fierce criticism from Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Following the film’s premiere, which received an eight-minute standing ovation, the Trump campaign denounced the biopic as “garbage” and “pure fiction,” with plans to file a lawsuit over its portrayal of the former president.

Responding to the threats of legal action, Abbasi remarked, "Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?"

He further extended an olive branch, suggesting he would be willing to meet with Trump to discuss the film's context and even screen it for him.

“I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie he would dislike,” said Abbasi.

The film, which stars Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as his lawyer Roy Cohn, does not shy away from depicting its subjects in a stark and often critical light.

Abbasi also linked the film’s US promotional plans to the upcoming election, suggesting the second presidential debate on September 15 as a potential release date.

The film’s narrative, according to Abbasi, is not just about Trump but also reflects broader themes of truth and manipulation, influenced by Trump’s apprenticeship under Cohn.

Jeremy Strong, who plays Cohn, could not attend the Cannes premiere due to his Broadway commitments, and contributed a powerful message, read by Abbasi. Strong described the insidious influence of Cohn and, by extension, Trump: “‘An Enemy of the People’ is a phrase that has been used by Stalin, Mao, Goebbels and, most recently, by Donald Trump when he denounced the free press and called CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS News, the New York Times ‘fake news media.’ An enemy of the people,” he wrote.