Celebrities

Lawyers for Donald Trump file cease-and-desist against ‘The Apprentice’ filmmakers

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on May 24, 2024

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have filed a cease-and-desist to try to block the controversial film The Apprentice — which stars Sebastian Stan as a young Donald — from seeing theaters.

The Hollywood Reporter says the filmmakers behind the project, which recently debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and has yet to secure theatrical distribution in the U.S., call it a “fair and balanced” portrayal of Trump in the 1970s and in his real-estate mogul days of the ’80s.

According to various outlets, one scene reportedly shows Trump raping his former wife, the late Ivana, played by Borat 2’s Maria Bakalova.

“The Movie presents itself as a factual biography of Mr. Trump, yet nothing could be further from the truth,” the trade quotes the letter sent to director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman, the latter of whom is accused of making “racist, Marxist, and otherwise disparaging statements against President Trump in 2018.”

The three-page letter calls the film “a concoction of lies that repeatedly defames President Trump and constitutes direct foreign interference in America’s elections,” adding, “If you do not immediately cease and desist all distribution and marketing of this libelous farce, we will be forced to pursue all appropriate legal remedies.”