Former President Donald Trump lost it on Truth Social over the new movie, The Apprentice, which was released Friday and depicts him as a young man.
The film stars Sebastian Stan and includes controversial scenes including one where Trump sexually assaults his then-wife, Ivana Trump, and one where he gets liposuction and surgery to cover up a growing bald spot at the back of his head.
Trump called the movie 'FAKE' and 'CLASSLESS' on Truth Social overnight Monday, adding that it 'will hopefully "bomb."'
'It's a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country,' Trump said.
He added that his late wife Ivana 'was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died'.
The new movie, The Apprentice, stars actor Sebastian Stan who portrays a young Donald Trump. Former President Donald Trump went on a tirade over the film Monday
'The writer of this pile of garbage, Gabe Sherman, a lowlife and talentless hack, who has long been widely discredited, knew that, but chose to ignore it,' Trump continued.
'So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement, which is far bigger than any of us,' Trump also offered. 'MAGA2024!'
Prior to writing the film, his first feature, Sherman wrote for Vanity Fair and New York magazine and authored the Roger Ailes biography, The Loudest Voice in the Room.
After adapting that book for a Showtime limited series starring Russell Crowe, Sherman started penning the movie that would become The Apprentice.
He said he thoroughly reported out the script.
'I read everything I could about Donald Trump and Roy Cohn and New York City in the 1970s and ’80s,' Sherman said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 'And then I went out interviewing people who knew Donald and Roy during those years and asked them for more anecdotes. So it was a mix of historical research plus my own interviews.'
The rape scene is based on a divorce deposition from Ivana Trump that she later recanted in 2015 after he announced his first presidential run.
On Truth Social overnight Monday, Trump called The Apprentice 'FAKE' and 'CLASSLESS'
On Truth Social, Trump insisted that he and his late first wife Ivana Trump, portrayed by actress Maria Bakalova (left) in the film, 'had a great relationship'
Stan plays Trump and the Roy Cohn character is played by Jeremy Strong of Succession fame.
The movie's director, Ali Abbasi, was in Washington, D.C. last week and told an audience there that he had initially thought about casting a woman in the Trump part.
'There was a time before I started talking to Sebastian I thought that maybe it should be an actress playing Trump,' Abbasi said. 'Because I thought there was something awkward and off about his body language and I wanted to have that. I wanted to sort of play with that. And we tried it.'
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Abbasi wouldn't reveal which actresses he spoke to about portraying Trump on the big screen, though he did say that he reached out to Cate Blanchett for advice, as she did a 'great job' playing Bob Dylan.
'I did talk to a few people about that and I was serious about it,' Abbasi said in an interview Monday.
'I did overlays of young Donald's face and different actresses that I was considering,' he continued. 'I talked to my prosthetics person and tried to figure out how we could solve it if someone had the good proportions or not.'
Abbasi told DailyMail.com that he also conducted a voice test using a woman.
'And in the end, I think, I just felt like the whole thing became too gimmicky,' he said.
'It would go contrary to my goal, which was humanizing and, you know, capturing complexity. And it would become a movie about how you did that stunt,' the director said.
It also would have likely angered Trump even more than Stan's performance.
In 2017, on the heels of Melissa McCarthy dressing in drag and portraying White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live, the fact that McCarthy was a woman was the 'most problematic' part of the skit in the president's eyes, Politico reported.
Cast member Kate McKinnon also played Trump's first Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, and former New York City Rudy Giuliani, who became Trump's personal lawyer.
Aidy Bryant played Trump's second Attorney General Bill Barr.
Abbasi said he wasn't aware that Trump had been angered by women playing his top aides on the comedy show.
'We talk about it like it's a negative thing, but it doesn't need to be a negative thing,' Abbasi said of gender-bending performances. 'But I wasn't aware, I wasn't aware of this,' he said of Trump's anger related to women playing his aides and allies.
In the end, the pick of Stan for Trump felt right.
'I think one important thing with Sebastian is, he - and I've said that before - he's almost specialized in bringing sleazebags and douchebags to life,' Abbasi said. 'And give them like humanity and give them sort of, you feel for him. You feel for these characters. Without them being necessarily ridiculed.'
'And its' a very interesting talent, you know, it's not easy,' the director said.
