Trump Sends Cease and Desist Order to ‘The Apprentice’ Makers to Block US Release of Biopic

Donald Trump's lawyers have slapped the makers of The Apprentice, a biopic seemingly based on his early years, with a cease and desist order. The legal team is attempting to halt the film's sale and distribution in the US after much controversy erupted last week when the movie debuted. Team Trump threatened to sue The Apprentice and slammed them for the film's crude and "pure fiction" depiction of the real estate mogul-turned-president following the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last week.

Sebastian Stan plays the then-young business scion, and Jeremy Strong plays infamous Trump lawyer Roy Cohn. As the film festival draws to a close and producers consider distribution agreements, Variety revealed that Trump's legal team sent out the cease-and-desist letter ahead of schedule, possibly to frighten away prospective suitors in the US.

“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign communications director, slammed the movie in a statement last week, per Rolling Stone. Dan Snyder, who had invested in The Apprentice with the expectation that it would provide a favorable image of Trump, was apparently "furious" after seeing the movie. The former owner of the NFL's Washington Commanders is also drafting a cease-and-desist letter to prevent a US distribution arrangement. 

In response to the cease-and-desist letter, the producers of The Apprentice, named after Trump's long-running reality show, denied any ill intent in a statement provided to Variety. “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president. We want everyone to see it and then decide.” Before involving attorneys, director Ali Abbasi asked the infamously litigious Trump to see the movie personally after its debut.

“I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie he would dislike,” Abbasi said during a press conference. “I don’t necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised, you know? And like I’ve said before, I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening, and have a chat afterward if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign.” 

Audience members reportedly gasped during a May 20 screening of Abbasi's film at Cannes, per The Guardian. The film begins with a disclaimer that the events depicted are fictionalized. Scenes included Trump getting liposuction, undergoing scalp-reduction surgery, and—most controversially—pushing his first wife, Ivana, to the ground and raping her. The rape sequence in the movie is a dramatized version of an alleged 1989 incident that was previously described in 1990 during the couple's divorce procedures. Ivana Trump detailed the incident, which happened soon after her husband's scalp-reduction surgery, in her deposition.