“Chilling” – The Apprentice: Trump Movie Review

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice (2024)
Promo image © APPRENTICE PRODUCTIONS ONTARIO INC. / PROFILE PRODUCTIONS 2 APS / TAILORED FILMS LTD. 2023

This is the movie which Trump, according to media reports, tried to prevent being released. In any normal country, if this movie in any way reflects what this man is like, then he would have been forced by his own political party to withdraw from the race. And, let’s be honest, the movie DOES capture his media personality quite well, even if some of the details are fictionalised. The movie left me with the impression that the younger Trump was part of some kind of stereotypical somewhat shady New York business scene. It left me feeling chilled by the extent to which he appears in this film to be selfish and self absorbed. But nothing I have seen of the real Trump online, including long videos of him, does anything to counter the impression that this film merely reinforced.

See also my roundup Trump vs Harris article

But then who doesn’t already know what they think of Donald Trump? To some he is the strongman, the “self-made billionaire” who embodies the white man’s American Dream. The champion of the Christians, although he seems to have disavowed every value and principle we stand for. To others, he is the man who uses the Bible as a prop and a means to make money selling bibles he had printed in China. The man who when once asked in an interview what if he had ever had to ask God for forgiveness clearly, clearly hadn’t. He is the man who even his own vice presidential candidate once called “America’s Hitler”. The man who multiple Generals and other key members of his administration and party say should never be let back into the White House. The man who loves dictators and will force the Ukraine to essentially surrender “on day one”. The one whose policies seem targeted at benefiting billionaires rather than improving healthcare like the Harris platform. I guess I have nothing else to say on this matter but that I genuinely hope and pray that Kamala Harris is elected, and that she governs in such a way to try and bridge the divide that runs so deep in your land.