Trump campaign says it will sue makers of movie that shows then property mogul ‘raping’ his wife Ivana: Spokesman describes The Apprentice biopic as ‘pure garbage’

The Trump campaign announced it will sue the “pretending filmmakers” behind a controversial new film in which the presidential candidate rapes his wife Ivana.

It said it was full of long-debunked lies and belonged in a “dumpster fire.”

Sebastian Stan plays Trump in “The Apprentice” as a younger man and “Succession” star Jeremy Strong plays his fixer Roy Cohn. The premiere took place on Monday evening at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film tells the story of the end of his marriage to Ivana, and at one point shows Trump raping his wife and asking, “Did I find your g-spot?”

In a 1989 divorce decree, Ivana made an accusation of rape, but withdrew it in 2015. She has now passed away.

“We will file a lawsuit to address the blatantly false claims made by these so-called filmmakers,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign director.

“This garbage is pure fiction that sensationalizes lies that have long been debunked.

“Just like the illegal Biden trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and defeat the candidate of his choice because nothing they have done has worked.

“This ‘movie’ is pure malicious slander, should not see the light of day and does not even deserve a place in the direct-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-close discount film store, it belongs in a dumpster.”

The makers of the film are also said to be in a dispute with one of its financiers, billionaire Dan Snyder, a Trump supporter and former donor to his campaign.

The Apprentice sees Sebastian Stan play the role of Trump during the blossoming early years of his business career, particularly his working relationship with controversial lawyer Roy Cohn, who died in 1986 from an AIDS-related illness.

Production on The Apprentice began in late November. The film follows Trump in the 1970s and 1980s as he attempts to establish his real estate empire on the properties owned by his father Fred Trump.

The Apprentice is directed by Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi, who shot the critically acclaimed Persian-language crime thriller Holy Spider, which was released in 2022.

Successor Jeremy Strong, who will play disgraced – and ultimately disbarred – lawyer Roy Cohn, will feature prominently as the younger Trump’s mentor. He was later disbarred in 1986 for defrauding a dying client.

Oscar-nominated actress Maria Bakalova plays Trump’s late ex-wife Ivana Trump in her younger years.

Variety initially reported that the film’s title would be The Student, adding that a logline for the upcoming film described it as “an exploration of power and ambition in a world of corruption and deceit.”

“It’s a mentor-protégé story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger-than-life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”

The screenplay for the film was written by Gabriel Sherman, author of the 2014 book The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country.

In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce decree, she stated that Trump had raped her. She claimed Trump pushed her to the ground and pulled out several handfuls of her hair.

Trump denied the accusation and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but that she felt violated.

In a 1993 statement, she said: “At one time in 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved toward me very differently than he had during our marriage.

“As a woman, I felt violated… I called this rape, but I don’t want my words to be interpreted literally or criminally.”