The Apprentice actor Jeremy Strong, perhaps best known for his role as Kendall Roy in HBO’s Succession series, has recently compared Donald Trump to dictators Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong as well as Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Furthermore, the Succession star also stood behind mainstream media outlets such as CNN, NBC, and The New York Times, amongst others.
Strong’s inflammatory comments were made at the Cannes Film Festival ahead of the premiere of the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, where the Succession star plays the former president’s lawyer and mentor Roy Marcus Cohn.
“I deeply wish I could be there with you right now, but I am on stage in New York doing Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People,” read The Apprentice Director Ali Abbasi on behalf of Strong.
He continued, “‘Enemy of the people’ is a phrase that has been used by Stalin, by Mao, by Goebbels, and most recently by Donald Trump, when he denounces the free press and calls CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, [and] New York Times, fake news media.”
“We’re living in a world where truth is under assault, and in America that assault on truth in many ways began in the malevolent chrysalis of Donald Trump’s apprenticeship under Roy Cohn,” he added. “Cohn was called ‘an assault specialist’ by The National Law Journal, and at this perilous moment in history we are experiencing Roy Cohn’s long, dark shadow.”
Continuing to quote Strong, Abbasi went on, “His legacy of lies, of outright denialism, of manipulation, [and] of flagrant disregard for truth has reached a terrible fruition. Ali Abbasi has made a monster movie, where one begets the other.”
“It’s an attempt to understand, in the words of the 11th century Persian poet Omar Khayyam, how ‘yesterday this day’s madness did prepare,’” Strong’s statement concluded.
Abbasi himself took a moment to smear Trump at the premiere of The Apprentice, declaring, “When we did this movie everyone said, why do you want to make a movie about Trump? If you want to tell something about the world, do it in a nice way, in a metaphorical way.”
“How about the Second World War movie? How about a First World War movie? How about an American independence movie? How about the Russian invasion movie? ” the director recalled being suggested to make into a film, adding, “The point is there is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism.”
Starring Marvel actor Sebastian Stan in the role of a young Donald Trump, the synopsis for The Apprentice reads, “1970s New York: determined to emerge from his powerful father’s shadow and make a name for himself in Manhattan real estate, aspiring mogul Donald J. Trump is in the earliest days of his career when he encounters the man who will become one of the most important figures in his life, political fixer Roy Cohn.”
“Seeing promise in young Donald, the influential attorney – who secured espionage convictions against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and investigated suspected Communists alongside Senator Joseph McCarthy – teaches his new acolyte how to amass wealth and power through deception, intimidation and media manipulation. The rest is history,” the synopsis concludes.
Abbasi calling Trump a fascist pales in comparison to what the director put in the movie. According to Variety, The Apprentice features a rape scene in which Trump is seeing throwing his ex-wife Ivanka to the floor and then proceeds to have non-consensual intercourse with her.
“In the controversial scene, Ivana playfully presents a book to her husband about the merits of a female orgasm,” the outlet described. “But the interaction between the two turns dark quickly, as an uninterested Trump tells his wife that he is no longer attracted to her.”
“They argue, and then Trump throws her to the ground. An icy Trump sneers: ‘Is that your G spot? Did I find it?’” Variety concludes the description of the controversial scene.
On Monday, political advisor and Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung addressed the controversial scene in The Apprentice, threatening legal action against the filmmakers, declaring, “We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Cheung accused. “As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”
