IsThe ApprenticeReal? New Donald Trump Movie Alleges a Prenup Fight, Liposuction and Fake Cufflinks

Mar. 15, 2025

Roy Cohn and Donald Trump (left) in 1983; Jeremy Strong as Cohn Sebastian Stan as Trump in ‘The Apprentice.'.Photo:Sonia Moskowitz/Getty; APPRENTICE PRODUCTIONS ONTARIO INC._PROFILE PRODUCTIONS 2 APS_TAILORED FILMS LTD. 2023

Sonia Moskowitz/Getty; APPRENTICE PRODUCTIONS ONTARIO INC._PROFILE PRODUCTIONS 2 APS_TAILORED FILMS LTD. 2023

The opening ofThe Apprentice— the controversial film aboutDonald Trump’s relationship with his former lawyer and advisor Roy Cohn and the latter’s influence on the future U.S. president — features a disclaimer saying some elements about the story have been fictionalized.

And Gabriel Sherman, theVanity Faircorrespondent who wrote the screenplay, has admitted he was never aiming to make a documentary: “This is a work of art. It’s fiction,”he recently toldThe Hollywood Reporter.

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, dismisses outright.

“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” according to 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 (Succession’s Jeremy Strong) — the tough New York lawyer and chief counsel for Joseph McCarthy, the U.S. senator infamous for fanning the flames of the Communist “Red Scare” — during the years they worked together in the 1970s and 80s.

Donald Trump and Roy Cohn in 1983.Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

From that meeting, a working relationship was born, as thePostreported: “Cohn soon represented Trump in legal battles, counseled him about his marriage and introduced Trump to New York power brokers, money men and socialites.”

Martin Donovan (left) plays Trump patriarch Fred Trump in ‘The Apprentice.'.Pascal Le Segretain/Getty; Rita Barros/Getty

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty; Rita Barros/Getty

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

Fred Trump II, who died of heart failure in 1981 at age 42, was “a severe alcoholic,” his son acknowledges. The film does show him spiral as the grip of addiction takes hold — and his funeral is portrayed on screen as well.

An alleged argument over a prenuptial agreement

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

But the terms the character offers to his bride-to-be — she must return every gift he gives her in the event of a divorce — are insulting to her. She balks, and he apologizes.

A transcript of Ivana’s deposition from the 1990 divorce proceedings show she claimed that an early version of the agreement stipulated that she would indeed be required to fork over her gifts,according toThe New York Times.

“Sensing her sorrow, Mr. Trump apologized, Ivana Trump later testified in a divorce deposition. He said it was his lawyer’s idea. ‘It is just one of those Roy Cohn numbers,’ Mr. Trump told her,” theTimesreported.

A harrowing sexual assault scene

Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in ‘The Apprentice.'.Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment

Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment

Donald told PEOPLE in 2016 that the alleged incident “never took place.” And a spokesperson for Donald has previously trashed that scene in particular, while threatening legal action. “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," according to Cheung.

Allegations of plastic surgery

Stan’s Donald undergoes liposuction on his midsection and an operation on his scalp to stop balding inThe Apprentice. The two procedures shown in that scene are ones Ivana claimed Donald actually had done.

According toVanity Fair, “In 1990, Ivana Trump said under oath that her husband flew into a fit of rage due to the pain and displeasure with a scalp reduction surgery, performed in 1989. Also known as alopecia reduction, the surgery is intended to correct balding… The man who allegedly performed the surgery was Ivana’s own doctor, Dr. Steven Hoefflin…[who] also performed liposuction on the chin and waist of [Donald], according to Ivana’s [divorce] deposition.”

The movie’s timeline of events, however, doesn’t quite line up with Ivana’s claims. The film ends with Stan’s Donald talking toThe Art of the Dealauthor Tony Schwartz, as the latter interviews the former for the bestselling book, which was published in 1987, two years before Ivana claimed her then-husband had surgery.

Did Donald give fake cufflinks to Roy Cohn?

One of the final scenes in the film shows Stan’s Donald gifting Strong’s Cohn with a pair of diamond cufflinks during a dinner in Cohn’s honor atMar a Lago, the Trumps’ winter retreat. In the film, Bakalova’s Ivana leans over and tells Strong’s Cohn they’re fake.

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in ‘The Apprentice.'.Pief Weyman

Pief Weyman

But according tothe 2016New York Timesarticle, Trump gifted Cohn the cufflinks on a prior occasion after a big legal win. 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 the jewels were allegedly not real.

“He did get to keep the cuff links Mr. Trump had given Mr. Cohn. Years later, Mr. Fraser had them appraised; they were knockoffs, he said,” the article stated.

The Apprenticeis now in theaters.

source: people.com