A review of The Apprentice

Words: Alice McCloskey (she/her)

‘I am not a crook.’

  Ali Abbasi’s film The Apprentice opens with footage of a speech by the United States’ 37^th President, Richard Nixon. His declaration that he is ‘not a crook’ amid the Watergate Scandal – that would lead to his resignation – sets the tone for a film that explores the political manoeuvring, blackmail, and money-making schemes of mentor Roy Cohn and his protégé’s rise to prominence: Donald J. Trump. 

  The Apprentice then pans to the face of a young Donald J. Trump walking along the streets of New York, portrayed with uncanny realism (both in appearance and demeanour) by Sebastian Stan. He is not yet the horrifying caricature complete with orange face, wispy hair and naked political ambition we now unfortunately know too well. However, as the film progresses, moulded under the auspices of Cohn and driven ever forward by his own aggressive ambition, Trump builds his property empire in New York, the ‘rules’ of Roy Cohn guiding everything he does- everything is justifiable, everything is deniable, everything is possible with money, greed, and the unrelenting belief in your own success. 

  ‘None of it matters except winning.’  

  Yet, as one political and economic shyster bends towards the sun, the other wilts like Icarus, and Trump soon discards his one-time mentor as he does his brother, previous business partners and even his first wife Ivana- the dark irony of this is highlighted in the movie when scenes of Cohn’s funeral intersect with Trump receiving liposuction and scalp reduction surgery. A man so devoid of human empathy, so fuelled by greed and money, has been born before the viewer’s eyes. A Harry Houdini legalistically. 

  It feels as though he’s a fictitious villain destined to remain trapped within the scenes of a dark political satire or, as the movie’s subtext on Letterbox states, ‘An American Horror Story.’ Alas, The Apprentice is, rather unsettlingly, a biopic of the man who will rise to the very top of America to become the 45^th President of the United States. And the 47^th. And possibly even, some say, the 48th.

    Whilst the film ends far before depicting Trump’s political campaign – with only a few remarks flattering his possible political ability – this movie begs the question of how a man with such a morally defunct character has become America’s most powerful politician. Indeed, the world’s most powerful politician. An examination exposes the rotten veins of moral decay that now carry the lifeblood of American politics. In Donald Trump, we may well be witnessing the nightmare future as well as the dystopian present.   

   One only has to look at members of his cabinet and the abhorrent actions taken by his government. Tech-billionaire Elon Musk with an estimated net worth of $363 billion has assumed the role of advising cuts to the federal government, layoffs, and downsizing. Does he speak for the millions of Americans reliant on food banks amid their funding cuts – of up to $1 billion – at the hands of Trump’s government?  

   Defence secretary Pete Hegseth is a Fox News host without any previous political experience, one sexual assault investigation, and another sexual assault claim, with his lawyer confirming that he paid a woman a sum of money to not speak of it for a year. He continues to deny both claims. Does he, as the defence secretary, second in command over the US military, speak for the thousands of women in  America who have experienced completed or attempted rape? Meanwhile, Trump’s government cuts federal funding for domestic violence charities and on the first day of April – the month dedicated to awareness of sexual violence – fired the very teams of people who aim to prevent and aid those who have experienced sexual violence and domestic abuse.

    Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy Tour warns the American population, and the world, of  the ‘rising authoritarianism’ under a cabinet and presidency of billionaires with an unscrupulous ambition for money and power. As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez puts it, the American government now consists of  ‘those with the most economic, political and technological power’ who will willingly ‘destroy the public good in order to enrich themselves at the price of millions of Americans’. The successive onslaught against immigration, women, the climate and the economy… (the list goes on) since Trump’s second arrival in office presents just this – a sacrificing of the rights of the people for the ambition of the very few.The Apprentice leaves the viewer with a shot of the American flag reflecting in Trump’s eyes and an unrelenting feeling of dread with the chilling knowledge of what his ambition has become.