New biopic 'The Apprentice' received eight minutes of applause at the Cannes Film Festival and garnered much attention, along with threats of legal action, as an attempt to portray how Donald Trump became Donald Trump ing.
But the young Trump's mentoring by Roy Cohn, the nefarious political fixer that the film's director Ali Abbasi says is at the heart of this origin story, only deepens the mystery of the current election reality.
Cohn's win-at-all-costs strategy ultimately led him to disaster. He was eventually disbarred and continued to deny his own sexuality even after dying of AIDS.
Cannes' Scandalous Trump Movie Could Be an Oscar Contender (Really!)
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump filed for business bankruptcy six times because of his mentor's tactics. The Washington Post estimates that Trump racked up approximately $1.8 billion in debt while living on the top floor of a 58-story building. The building is 58 stories high, but he told others that he was on the 68th floor.
He tried to foster the illusion of success with his ghostwritten book, The Art of the Deal, but the truth became increasingly clear. In 2002, he was on the verge of becoming a joke when he met Mark Burnett, a reality TV producer who was developing a corporate version of the blockbuster hit Survivor.
The result was the TV show The Apprentice. And it was Mr. Trump's bond with Mr. Burnett, not Mr. Cohn, that led to the current situation.
Burnett's staff fabricated so-called reality TV by editing hundreds of hours of raw footage for each episode. The show was a huge hit, and millions of viewers came to see Trump as someone who came close to failure but fought his way back to the top.
“I was in deep trouble,” President Trump said in a narration at the beginning of the pilot episode. “I was billions of dollars in debt. But I fought back and made it to the big leagues.”
As The New Yorker reported, Barnett's team typically selected the contestants and determined the outcome. His Trump's most important contribution was improvising the famous line to the losing contestants at the end of each episode: “You're fired!”
The apprenticeship was then joined by celebrity apprentices. Ratings for both shows gradually declined over time, but the illusion that President Trump was a brilliantly successful businessman persisted. And he continued to rake in millions of dollars from TV shows pretending to be a billionaire, even though he wasn't actually a legitimate billionaire.
By 2015, Trump had acquired enough kingly awareness of himself to descend the now famous Trump Tower escalator and formally announce his candidacy for president.
In the absence of Editor-in-Chief Burnett, who was on hand to remove the bigoted and sexist remarks spewed by President Trump during the filming of The Apprentice, news crews videotaped the reality as it happened. No one sanitized Trump when he announced his candidacy, and at one point he called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. Then NBC became the side that said, “You're fired!” And then the show was canceled.
Married Donald Trump went on to “propose” to Playboy model Brande Roderick on “Celebrity Apprentice”
But the fiction that Trump and Barnett concocted has taken on a life of its own. Those who watched on TV became the core of a growing base of supporters who saw even President Trump's most offensive statements as proof that he could do whatever he wanted.
Among those who have challenged that idea in recent days is New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchand, who is presiding over Mr. Trump's hush money trial. Marchand imposed a gag order that prohibited Trump from verbally attacking anyone involved in the case, but the former president repeatedly violated it. But the one exception is the judge himself, who President Trump continues to denounce as a corrupt thug.
However reluctant he may be to jail a former president, Marchant made it clear that he would be willing to do so if President Trump continues to violate orders. Apparently, one thing President Trump fears is imprisonment.
Instead, President Trump, with many of his supporters attending the trial, has denounced it as a grave injustice. His representatives include House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said he and his teenage son “Accountability Partners” They check each other’s phones and computers for “anything unpleasant.” Mr. Trump's support base is so powerful that Mr. Johnson stood outside a Manhattan courthouse and lamented Mr. Trump's prosecution for allegedly paying off porn stars.
“I wanted to come here myself and shout out what a travesty of justice this is,” Johnson said.
Others who appeared at trial included a number of vice presidential candidates, including Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Rep. Byron Donald of Florida.
Trump campaign vows to sue 'pretending filmmakers' behind 'The Apprentice'
Unlike Mr. Burnett's crew, Mr. Trump will likely choose among these candidates himself.
Meanwhile, no matter who Trump chooses and no matter what the ruling in the hush-money case is, the televised reality could see him back in the White House.
And if that happens, we can't just blame Barnett and Trump. We share the responsibility.
Maybe there's a movie in there.
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