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Donald Trump, now once again ensconced in the White House, was the host of The Apprentice for 14 seasons, but this film of the same name – directed by the Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi – reveals the young Trump undertaking his very own real-life apprenticeship under the guidance of cutthroat lawyer Roy Cohn, mesmerisingly portrayed here by Jeremy Strong.

The brilliant Sebastian Stan, who plays Trump, cleverly dodges the temptation of making him into a caricature; instead we see a callow, alarmingly impressionable young man from a wealthy but difficult background falling under the influence of the almost demonic Cohn, who moulds him in his own image, against the glittering but deeply sleazy background of New York in the 1970s and 80s, just before the advent of the Aids epidemic.

The first version of Trump we see is that of a young rentier, collecting money from tenants by knocking on doors and being roundly abused by several of them in the process, dreaming all the while of creating a luxury hotel on dangerously rundown 44th Street, near Grand Central Station, a project that his superiors – including his brick-faced, alcoholic father Fred – pooh-pooh as nothing more than pie in the sky.

Enter the vicious and unscrupulous lawyer Roy Cohn, who spots young Donald in a swanky private club and somehow sees his potential. The reptilian Cohn, smile-less and unblinking, passes on his wisdom to his protégé, who is mesmerised by his three rules for success: always attack, never admit to any wrongdoing and never admit defeat – precepts which become the bedrock of Trump’s rise to power and influence.

Here, in other words, is the savvy, cunning father figure Trump has longed for without even knowing it. He is quickly initiated into Cohn’s world of debauched partying – “You’re not invited unless you’re indicted” – and riveted by his role model’s astounding rudeness, not to mention his habit of running meetings wearing only his underpants.

Cohn’s rampant homosexuality is profoundly unpalatable to Trump, and for the first part of the film he simply ignores it as something he doesn’t need to bother about, but the Aids epidemic means he is forced to confront it as Cohn fades away in front of him.

Sebastian Stan has nailed Trump’s movements and facial expressions, but he is also very good at showing us, without the use of words, how Trump is filing information away for use later on, something he has learned at his master’s knee.

We also see the emergence of Trump’s staggering vanity in the shape of his obsession with his hair, which he rather pathetically keeps checking in car windows and shop fronts. His insecurity about his appearance is reflected in the early ups and downs of his relationship with his future wife.

When he first runs into Ivana (Maria Bakalova) out on the town with a group of friends, she dismisses him as a child, but Trump won’t give up. He gets her attention by sending her a van full of roses and unexpectedly ambushing her in Aspen, where she’s on a work jaunt. Slowly but surely, Trump forces Ivana to bend to his will, his private life echoing the rules he has learned to live by in public.

In the second part of the film, we see a new version of Trump, full of self-belief and a sense of his own authority, ruthlessly pushing Cohn away in order to make his own decisions. The pupil has outgrown the master and, as a result, the film becomes more of a conventional biopic, as Trump begins to emerge as the financial and political powerhouse with which we are familiar.

Once the master-pupil dynamic is concluded, however, the film becomes much less compelling.

When a fed-up Trump tells Ivana that he no longer loves her, she, in shock, then taunts him about his weight and his hair, knowing his vanity is his Achilles heel.

Trump then disposes of Ivana and takes to popping amphetamines, having plastic surgery and dating much younger women. He is beginning to become a recognisable version of one of Tom Wolfe’s “masters of the universe”.

As his moral fibre declines, we see Trump talking more and listening less, losing all capacity for genuine affection and honesty. The fascinatingly conflicted young man has vanished beneath hair implants, fat-busting surgery, and the heady wine of success. Something inside him has withered and died, and he is the less for it.

This film is a clever snapshot of its subject at a specific time. It doesn’t say anything we haven’t already heard and the second half fails to plumb the psychological depths of its title character, but it’s still worth seeing because of its complex early portrayal of Trump – once more the US president, in its 47th iteration – at a vital moment in his life.

Photo: Jeremy Strong (left) as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in ‘The Apprentice’ (screenshot).

Original article: thecatholicherald.com