Former President Donald Trump's campaign is vowing to sue the makers of a controversial new movie that reportedly includes scenes of him raping his first wife, taking amphetamines to lose weight and cutting deals with the mob to get New York City's Trump Tower built.
In a prepared statement, campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers," the Hill reported late Monday night.
"This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked," Cheung said.
Cheung added, "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."
Director Ali Abbasi shrugged off the threat of legal action during a Tuesday news conference at the Cannes Film Festival in France with actor Sebastian Stan, who plays Trump in the movie "The Apprentice," People magazine reported.
"I mean, everybody talks about him suing a lot of people - they don't talk about his success rate, though, you know?" Abbasi said of his film's subject.
The director also offered to meet Trump "wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if that's interesting for anyone of Trump campaign people here."
"The Apprentice" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday and received an 8-minute standing ovation, Variety reported.
Abbasi was so happy with the audience response that his tuxedo shirt became untucked as he jumped up and down and waved to the crowd, according to Variety.
Abbasi also reportedly played off Trump's signature "Make America Great Again" slogan as he discussed making what Variety called his "blistering portrait" of the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in November.
"There is no nice, metaphorical way to deal with fascism," Abbasi said. "It's time to make movies relevant. It's time to make movies political again."
