CANNES, France (AP) — While Donald Trump’s hush money trial entered its sixth week in New York, an origin story for the Republican presidential candidate premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, unveiling a scathing portrait of the former president in the 1980s.
“The Apprentice,” directed by the Iranian Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, stars Sebastian Stan as Trump. The central relationship of the movie is between Trump and Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the defense attorney who was chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy’s 1950s Senate investigations.
Cohn is depicted as a longtime mentor to Trump, coaching him in the ruthlessness of New York City politics and business. Early on, Cohn aided the Trump Organization when it was being sued by the federal government for racial discrimination in housing.
“The Apprentice,” which is labeled as inspired by true events, portrays Trump’s dealings with Cohn as a Faustian bargain that guided his rise as a businessman and, later, as a politician. Stan’s Trump is initially a more naive real-estate striver, soon transformed by Cohn’s education.
Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to Maryland ban on rifles known as assault weapons
China Focus: China moves quickly to contain COVID
Farewell to China's homecoming motorbike fleets
Farewell to China's homecoming motorbike fleets
Mohammad Mokhber: Who is Iran’s acting president?
Commentary: A summit for democracy or dominance?
Xi inspects Changde in central China's Hunan Province
Middle East welcomes China's role as peace builder, rejects US determinism
Verona confirms Serie A status for another year after beating Salernitana
New debt deal reveals US addiction to war
Analysis: Larson enters conversation with Verstappen as best drivers in the world
Evil tactics to demonize fight against virus