The new Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice is a tortured, yet must-see movie for anyone even remotely concerned about American politics.
As an origins story, the film is a bit uneven but quite impactful. It uses paint-by-the-numbers character development and meat cleaver morality play to trace the rise of real estate entrepreneur Donald Trump toward his ascendancy to be the 45th president of the United States.
We are introduced to Trump at a party in 1973 where he meets his would-be mentor, Roy Cohn. Casting Jeremy Strong as Cohn was a stroke of brilliance. Fresh off his great work in the television series Succession, Strong looks, sounds, and smells evil. 
In a frightening channeling of future hard-right racist Trump advisor Stephen Miller, Strong assures Trump that whatever he does, it is always in the best interests of America. Of course, what he means by “America” is the warped power-hungry capitalism which involves the fascist, red-baiting agenda of Sen. Joe McCarthy and the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for supposed Soviet spying.
The table is already set for Cohn, as the ambitious young Trump is a wide-eyed, power-struck developer wanting to move out of his builder father Fred’s shadow. Cohn ingratiates Trump with his mob colleagues. The film misses a beat here, though, by not further exploring Trump’s use of mob connections.
Cohn is unstinting in his sage advice, as well as his hooking up Trump with New York City’s right-wing ruling elite—from George Steinbrenner to Rupert Murdoch. The government, liberal do-gooders, people of color, and workers, by contrast, are the enemy. Always file lawsuits against them, the corrupt attorney advises.
Cohn imparts his three rules of winning:
- 1.) Always attack first and incessantly, using threats, insults, and lawsuits;
- 2.) Admit nothing, deny everything;
- 3.) No matter what happens, whether you win or lose, always claim victory. Nothing matters except winning or the perception of winning!
Impressed by Cohn’s uber-aggressiveness, Trump retains him as his attorney. Together they beat back NAACP charges of racism in Trump’s selection and treatment of tenants.
In the film, we see Trump push ahead with plans to develop in midtown Manhattan using the Commodore Hotel, which he develops into the Grand Hyatt using tax abatements gained through bullying and coercion. And against advice, Trump tries to replicate Las Vegas in his Atlantic City casino developments.
Trump’s libido grows with his business mix of successes and failures. He pursues his future wife Ivana even as he engages with other women and ends up raping Ivana after their marriage when she denies him sex.
Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Movie Film) gives Ivana’s curious ambition a spark of independence. She actually overshadows Romanian Sebastian Stan’s somewhat stiff and incredulous young Trump. Stan seems to pick up some energy from Trump’s addiction to diet pills and chemical enhancement as the film unfolds.
Still, it is Cohn who frames the film’s timeline and underscores its message. By the time he succumbs to AIDS, all the while denying the illness, Cohn sees his pupil graduate.
Trump absorbs and echoes Cohn’s virulent anti-democratic, anti-Communist Cold War ethos. He equates winning at all costs and his own power and profit with the good of the country. To succeed, he is willing to lie, cheat, steal, swindle, double-cross, and declare bankruptcy repeatedly.
As Cohn confides to Trump, “No one reminds me as much of myself as you do… you are going to go on to do a lot of things that would make me proud.”
We await the possible sequel, Trump, The Presidential Years.
The Apprentice is currently playing in theaters.
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