Billionaire Trump Donor Dan Snyder Reportedly ‘Furious’ After Watching Trump Film He Funded, Tried to Block Its Release
Many of the details about the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival Monday evening, are “shrouded in mystery,” reported Variety, but one high-profile investor behind the film’s financing is reportedly so “furious” about it, he tried to block its release.
Dan Snyder, the former owner of the Washington Commanders NFL team, spent years resisting calls to change the team name from the Redskins, finally relenting in 2020 and then selling the team in 2023 in the wake of investigations into scandalous allegations of financial fraud, sexual harassment, and other elements of a toxic workplace culture that flourished under his watch.
Snyder’s support for the former president displays a similarly tenacious stubbornness, with the billionaire giving over a million dollars to Trump’s 2016 inaugural committee and $100,000 for his 2020 re-election campaign. Snyder invested in the film, directed by Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump, through his company Kinematics “because he was under the impression that it was a flattering portrayal of the 45th president,” reported Variety’s Tatiana Siegel.
The Apprentice shares a name with the reality show that paved the way to Trump’s eventual presidency, but takes place years before it aired, chronicling the years of Trump’s marriage to first wife Ivana Trump (portrayed by Maria Bakalova, the breakout star of the Borat sequel in which she infamously caught Rudy Giuliani in a compromising position) and mentorship by Roy Cohn (played by Succession’s Jeremy Strong), the political fixer and attorney who represented mobsters and News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and was disbarred shortly before his death in 1986 for unethical and unprofessional conduct.
The filmmakers and cast have skipped doing press interviews in advance of the film’s premiere, wanting the film to speak for itself, but some behind the scenes details have nonetheless leaked out.
A reasonable person might not be surprised that a film focusing on a time period in the ex-president’s life where he was being mentored by a literal mob lawyer and in a marriage that would end in an explosive manner that dominated tabloid headlines for months might not be totally flattering, but apparently Snyder was in fact shocked and furious by the film’s contents.
According to Variety, Snyder saw a cut of The Apprentice in February, “[a]nd he isn’t happy,” setting off a “nasty battle” between Snyder’s company Kinematics and the filmmakers, with the billionaire described as “furious” and Kinematic’s lawyers issuing a flurry of cease-and-desist letters attempting to block the release of the film.
Company reps insisted that Snyder was not involved in the “creative and business decisions” regarding the film, but Variety’s report details other sources familiar with the bitter dispute who claimed Snyder “took issue with multiple aspects of the film and weighed in on what should be changed” — including one scene where the Trump character rapes Ivana from earlier drafts of the film’s screenplay. Such an incident was described by the real Ivana in a 1989 deposition during the couple’s divorce, but she later walked back those claims in 2015.
A source told Variety that the current cut of the film shows a scene that is “violent” and “uncomfortable” after a “fight between the couple,” but it isn’t clear how much, if any, Snyder was able to get the scene toned down.
In the end, it appears that Snyder’s objections will end up being merely full of sound and fury, signifying nothing — because Kinematics does not own the copyright to the film and therefore “cannot kill it.”
And the show will go on — the press screening at Cannes was kicking off Monday and several attendees posted photos showing a full house.
—
Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com
