First footage from Trump-condemning film “The Apprentice” released

Despite Donald Trump's efforts to stop the upcoming Ali Abbasi film The ApprenticeThe film is still causing a stir as a new clip was released on Tuesday showing the former president decades earlier (Sebastian Stan) being shot by his late friend and lawyer Roy Cohn (played by Consequenceby Jeremy Strong).

In the first clip from the film, which is expected to be released on October 11, Trump and Cohn sit in the back of a limousine while Cohn urges a reporter to interview Trump. “About 100 reporters have been bugging me to get this interview, and I gave you the exclusive,” the Cohn character says, handing Trump the phone.

Cohn then encourages Trump to use even more boastful language when speaking to said reporter, having just settled his racial discrimination lawsuit related to his father's housing practices. “I plan to build the best, most beautiful building,” says Stan as Trump, “in the city — maybe in the country,” and at Cohn's direction, he adds, “in the world.”

The Apprentice follows the young Trump as he builds his New York real estate business in the 1970s and '80s with the help of notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, who died in 1986 and is believed to be largely responsible for Trump's rise to power. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, many of whom highlighted a controversial rape scene between Trump and his first wife, Ivana.

After The Apprentice The screenwriter, journalist and author of the film, Gabriel Sherman, which was shown at the Telluride Film Festival last weekend, told the Los Angeles Times The rape scene is a “touchstone of the film because we ask the audience to spend time with this character and we have to show all sides of her.” He added: “We would be letting ourselves down – I would be letting myself down as a writer and journalist – if we didn't include this scene.”

Part-financier, Trump ally and billionaire Dan Snyder was so disgusted by Trump's portrayal in the film that he tried to block the film from being released in US theaters. However, his stake in the film was bought out when the film was released as planned – and just before the election. Director Ali Abbasi celebrated on Friday with a post on Twitter/X: “I am sooo excited to show the film to its domestic audience!!! America, here we come.”

Trump, on the other hand, has announced that he will sue the filmmakers. His spokesman Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast: “We will file suit to refute the blatantly false claims made by these alleged filmmakers,” adding: “This garbage is pure fiction that builds on lies that have long been disproven.”