Rape Scene In Trump Biopic ‘The Apprentice’ Provokes Controversy At Cannes Film Festival – A Threat Of A Lawsuit By Ex-President

A scene depicting a rape by former President Donald Trump in a biopic, The Apprentice, inspired controversy during its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

In the movie, which premiered at Cannes on Monday night, Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova) shows a young Trump (Sebastian Stan) a book about the female orgasm. In the scene, the former president tells his late ex-wife he is not attracted to her. He then throws her on the ground and angrily penetrates her as she asks him to stop.

“Is that your G-spot,” he asked her while sexually assaulting her. “Did I find it?” The scene inspired gasps from the audience. Ivana accused Trump of rape in a divorce deposition back in 1990. He denied the allegation, and his wife later said the incident had left her feeling “violated” but not raped “in a literal or criminal sense.”

Trump was accused by 23 women of various acts of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment and sexual assault.

The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi, had been condemned for doing too much to humanize the former U.S. president.

The film describes Trump’s career as a real estate businessman in the 1970s and 1980s.

It tries to avoid litigation by beginning with a disclaimer stating that it is based on actual events, though some characters’ names have been changed.

The film is being sold at Cannes, so it has yet to release date.

Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign, criticized the film in a statement after the film’s premiere.

“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” Cheung stated. “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”

“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,” he added. “It belongs in a dumpster fire.”

Abbasi did not seem worried during a festival press conference for the film on May 21.

“I mean, everybody talks about [Trump] suing a lot of people,” the director noted. “They don’t talk about his success rate, though.”

He also mentioned that he does not “necessarily think that this is a movie that he would dislike.” 

“I don’t necessarily think he would like it. I think that he – I think he would be surprised, and I said before like I would be happy,” he added. 

“I would offer him to go and meet him wherever he wants and then talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterward, you know, if that’s interesting for anyone of Trump campaign people here,” Abbasi stated.

Trump is already awash in lawsuits.

In June 2019, columnist E. Jean Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he denied having sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.

On March 8, he posted a $91.6 million bond for the $83.3 million civil defamation judgment in favor of the writer.

On March 18, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in a federal court in Miami for saying during his interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) on This Week that the former president had been found “liable for rape.” 

The jury had found him liable for sexual abuse under New York law but never for rape.