The “pretend filmmakers” of a controversial new biopic of Donald Trump have been put on notice by his campaign that they will be sued over a scene in the film that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.
Directed by Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan as then-real-estate mogul Trump, “The Apprentice” received an extended standing ovation at the film festival. But one controversial scene of Trump raping his then-wife Ivana, played by Maria Bakalova, has sparked a response from the Trump campaign.
Ivana Trump, who died in 2022, had spoken of the alleged rape in a divorce deposition in 1989 and the years following the couple’s split. She later rescinded the claims in 2015.
“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” the Trump campaign’s Steven Cheung said Monday, according to Deadline.
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Cheung added. “As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”
“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,” Cheung said. “It belongs in a dumpster fire.”
Director Ali Abbasi responded to the lawsuit threat.
“Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?” he said, according to Variety.
The Iranian-Danish filmmaker offered to meet with the former president and screen the movie for him.
“I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie he would dislike,” he said. “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 afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign.”
There is currently no U.S. release date for the film, but Abbasi had some thoughts on the matter.
“We have a promotional event coming up called U.S. Election that is going to help us with the movie. The second debate is going to be Sept. 15, something like that, so that’s a good release date I would say,” he remarked.
