Donald Trump Movie Includes Ivana Trump Rape Scene, His Campaign Responds

A new movie centered around Donald Trump's life in the 1970s and '80s is generating controversy.

The Apprentice, which stars Sebastian Stan as a young Trump in New York City, Maria Bakalova (Borat 2) as his first wife Ivana and Jeremy Strong as lawyer Roy Cohn, premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on May 20.

The movie includes a shocking scene in which Stan's Trump character is shown raping then-wife Ivana on the floor as she asks him to stop.

Steven Cheung, a communications director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement after the film's premiere: "We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers."

"This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked," Cheung added. "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. It belongs in a dumpster fire."

Despite the threat of legal action from Trump's campaign, the movie's director Abbasi, 43, appeared unconcerned at a festival press conference for the film on May 21.

"I mean, everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don't talk about his success rate, though, you know?" Abbasi said. The filmmaker went on to say that he does not "necessarily think this is a movie that he would dislike."

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"I don't necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised," the filmmaker added. "Like I said before, I would be happy — I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if that's interesting for anyone of Trump campaign people here." 

Ivana, who was married to Donald from 1977 until their 1990 divorce, once accused him of raping her in the late '80s during their divorce proceedings, as The Daily Beast reported in 2015. She later recanted this statement in 1993, stating at the time that while she "felt violated" she did "not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense."

In a 2015 statement about it, Ivana — who died in 2022 at 73 — said, "The story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of." When PEOPLE asked Donald in May 2016 about his ex-wife’s claim, he said, “It never took place.”

An official Cannes festival description for The Apprentice says the movie "charts a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn." The film does not yet have a distribution deal in place to release the movie in U.S. theaters.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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