By Mark Fields
Fictionalized Yet Resonant Account of How Trump Became Trump
In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Donald Trump was just starting to evolve into the familiar figure that he became in New York politics and society, and later the entire country. He was awkwardly stepping out from the shadow of his domineering mogul father Fred. To do so, he sought the advice and counsel of Roy Cohn, an even more ruthless, even amoral New York attorney and fixer. These are the facts that undergird The Apprentice, a sly if discomfiting fictionalized account of how Trump became Trump. As the country faces a third election with Trump on the ballot for President, this movie posits that the questionable teachings of Cohn made Trump into the political figure he is today, but really not made but burnished the flawed character that was already there.
Cohn (as unblinkingly portrayed by Jeremy Strong) espouses several principles of business – and by extension – politics that seem all too familiar to modern Americans: 1) Attack! Attack! Attack!; 2) Admit nothing, deny everything; and 3) No matter what happens, proclaim victory. Cohn sums up his philosophy as nothing matters except winning.
Over the course of the film – set over roughly ten years – we see young Donald Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) absorb those lessons and apply them. So much so, that later in the film we see Trump gradually reject his mentor Cohn. In fact, one of the stranger aspects of The Apprentice is how the audience actually feels some small measure of sympathy for the odious Cohn as he gradually succumbs to AIDS.
The third major character in the movie is Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova), who, as we knows, also gets discarded by Trump as she begins to assert some agency over her own life.
Does the dysfunction of the family Trump (cruel father, marginalized mother, alcoholic brother) explain the politician that we all have experienced? It’s difficult to know how historically accurate The Apprentice is. Trump claims, of course, it is not. But Trump’s ghost writer on The Art of the Deal, Tony Schwartz (himself a minor character) says the film has an emotional truth.
Regardless, the movie is a difficult one to watch, albeit perversely fascinating. It’s not easy to gain an understanding of a person so superficial and transactional. I came away from The Apprentice with no great insight into Donald Trump, just a confirmation that while some monsters happen naturally, others are clearly made.
