Is The Apprentice Real? New Donald Trump Movie Alleges a Prenup Fight, Liposuction and Fake Cufflinks

Opening Trainee — the controversial film about Donald Trump’s relationship with his former lawyer and adviser Roy Cohn and the latter’s influence on the future US president — contains a disclaimer saying some elements of the story are fictional.

And Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair The correspondent who wrote the script admitted that he never intended to make a documentary: “This is a work of art. It is fiction,” he said recently The Hollywood Reporter.

Still, the film is “inspired by real events, it’s inspired by real people, it’s based on really rigorous research,” Sherman continued, “and the idea in the writing, and I think in the filming and acting, was to try to find the most emotionally true story that we could find.”

Now that the film is in theaters, PEOPLE breaks down some key elements of the story, all of which a spokesperson for Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, flatly dismisses.

“This garbage is pure fiction that sensationalizes lies that have long been exposed,” said Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung. Warning: spoilers ahead!

What was Roy Cohn’s influence on Donald Trump?

At the heart of the story is what Trump (Sebastian Stan) allegedly learned from Cohn (SuccessionJeremy Strong) — a tough New York lawyer and chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy, the US senator infamous for fomenting the Communist “Red Scare” — during their years of working together in the 1970s and ’80s.

The film depicts the two men meeting when Stanov Trump — then working for his father, real estate entrepreneur Fred Trump, played by Martin Donovan — seeks out Strong’s Cohn to chat about some legal issues. That scene plays out like The Washington Post described in a 2016 article about their relationship.

“They happened to meet one night at Le Club, a hangout for the rich and famous in Manhattan. Trump introduced himself to Cohn, who was sitting at a nearby table, and asked for advice: How should he and his father respond to Justice Department allegations that their company systematically discriminated against black housing seekers?

Donald Trump and Roy Cohn in 1983.

Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

From that meeting, a working relationship was born, as it is Fast reported: “Cohn was soon representing Trump in legal battles, advising him on his marriage, and introducing Trump to New York’s powerful, money-grubbing and socialites.”

Sebastian Stan transformed into a young Donald Trump in a clip from a controversial new film Trainee

As the years pass in the film, Stanov’s Trump adopts Strong’s Cohn’s God-fearing mantra that never backs down.

Did someone in the family make fun of Donald’s older brother Fred?

Donald’s older brother and Fred Trump III’s father, Fred Trump II, is also portrayed by Charlie Carrick in the film. The eldest Trump child became an airline pilot instead of joining the family business — a fact that angered Donovan’s Trump patriarch in the film. In one dinner scene, he calls his son Fred “a damn bus driver with wings.”

Martin Donovan (left) plays Trump patriarch Fred Trump in ‘The Apprentice.’

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty; Rita Barros/Getty

Fred Trump III tells PEOPLE that becoming a pilot was indeed his father’s “dream,” which “didn’t go over well with my grandfather.” Fred Trump Sr. resorted to “making fun” of his own son, according to Fred Trump III, who said it contributed to his addiction problems.

Fred Trump II, who died of heart failure in 1981 aged 42, was a “heavy drinker”, his son admits. The film does show his spiral as the grip of addiction takes hold – and his funeral is also shown on screen.

An alleged argument over a prenuptial agreement

IN TraineeStan Donald falls in love with the beautiful Czech model Ivana Zelníčková (he plays her Borat The follow-up motion picture Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova) who initially resists his advances. After the courtship, Stan Donald proposes marriage to her, but she insists on signing a prenuptial agreement.

Ivana Trump and Donald Trump in 1985. Tom Gates/Archive Photos/Getty

But the terms the character offers his bride-to-be – she must return any gift he gives her in the event of a divorce – are offensive to her. She holds back and he apologizes.

A transcript of Ivana’s deposition from her 1990 divorce case shows that she claimed that an early version of the agreement stipulated that she would indeed have to pay her gifts, according to The New York Times.

“Sensing her grief, Mr. Trump apologized, Ivana Trump later testified in her divorce filing. He said it was his lawyer’s idea. ‘It’s just one of those Roy Cohn numbers,’ Mr Trump told her time reported.

Shocking scene of sexual assault

The film depicts a controversial rape scene, in which Stan’s character Donald attacks Bakal’s character Ivana in the 1980s. The moment was inspired by a claim that Ivana made – and later originated – during the statement she made when she split from Donald. The two divorced in 1990.

Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in the movie ‘The Apprentice’.

Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment

Donald told PEOPLE in 2016 that the alleged incident “never happened.” And Donald’s spokesman previously condemned the scene, threatening legal action. “This ‘film’ is pure malicious slander, should never see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a spot in the direct-to-DVD section of the clearance bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store. . The dumpster fire belongs to him,” Cheung said.

Allegations of plastic surgery

Stan Donald underwent mid-body liposuction and scalp surgery to stop balding Trainee. The two actions shown in that scene are the ones that Ivana claimed Donald actually did.

Inside the transformation of Ivana Trump Maria Bakalova for Trainee: Highlights, long nails, large shoulder pads (exclusive)

According to Vanity Fair“In 1990 Ivana Trump testified under oath that her husband became enraged due to pain and dissatisfaction with scalp reduction surgery performed in 1989. Also known as alopecia reduction, the surgery is intended to correct baldness… The man who allegedly performed the surgery was Ivana’s doctor, Dr. Steven Hoefflin…[who] also performed liposuction on chin and waist [Donald]according to Ivan’s [divorce] precipitation.”

The chronological sequence of events in the film, however, is not entirely in line with Ivana’s claims. The film ends with a conversation by Stan’s Donald The art of the deal by Tony Schwartz, as the latter interviews the former for the bestseller, which was published in 1987, two years before Ivana revealed that her then-husband had undergone surgery.

Did The Donald Give Fake Cuffs To Roy Cohn?

One of the final scenes in the film shows Stan Donald presenting Strong’s Cohn with a pair of diamond cufflinks during a dinner in Cohn’s honor at Mar a Lago, the Trumps’ winter retreat. In the film, Bakal’s Ivana leans over and tells Strong’s Cohn that they are fake.

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in the movie ‘The Apprentice’.

Pief Weyman

But according to 2016 The New York Times In the article, Trump presented Cohn with cufflinks on one occasion after a major legal victory. A man named Peter Fraser, who was Cohn’s lover at the time of the lawyer’s death in 1986, inherited his belongings. It was Fraser who discovered that the jewels were allegedly not real.

“He kept the cufflinks that Mr. Trump had given to Mr. Cohn. Years later, Mr. Fraser had them appraised; they were false lies, he said,” the article said.

Trainee it’s in theaters now.

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