What the Trump biopic ‘The Apprentice’ got right, and what’s fiction

Later in “The Apprentice,” Trump is shown embarking on an ambitious project to transform the Commodore Hotel near Grand Central Terminal into the Grand Hyatt.

As noted on the Trump Organization’s website, the former president was granted an “unprecedented contract” from the city: a 40-year tax abatement for the building.

The New York Times reported in 2016 that the historic deal had cost New York City $360 million in forgiven or uncollected taxes.

Trump met Czech model Ivana Zelníčková in New York in 1976. The two married the following year and would welcome three children: Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.

The movie depicts their initial courtship, wedding, and the events that led to the breakdown of their relationship before their eventual divorce in the early ’90s.

One of the most controversial scenes in the film shows Trump violenting throwing Ivana to the ground and sexually assaulting her.

Ivana, who died in 2022, said in a 1990 divorce deposition that Trump had raped her.

However, she later disavowed the claim when it was published in Harry Hurt III’s 1993 book, “The Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump.”

In 2015, she released a statement about the alleged incident, saying: “I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald,” per ABC News.

“The story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised 3 children that we love and are very proud of,” she added.

In the film, Ivana is shown looking over a pre-marital agreement and finding an issue with a clause about having to return gifts that Trump got her if they ever divorced. She throws her engagement ring toward Trump and Cohn and storms out.

Sherman has said that this scene is “almost verbatim” of what really happened ahead of the couple’s wedding.

He told Vanity Fair: “Roy insisted on doing Donald’s prenup. It was a few days before the wedding, and it almost blew up the wedding.”

“She was so furious about Roy’s prenup that Ivana insisted on Donald giving her money as a signing bonus,” he added.

Trump confirmed to The Washington Post in 2016 that Cohn represented him with regard to the agreement.

Toward the end of the film, as Cohn’s health deteriorates, Trump invites him to a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and gifts him Tiffany diamond cufflinks engraved with “Trump.”

Later in the movie, Ivana tells Cohn that the diamonds are fake.

The New York Times reported in 2016 that Trump once gave Cohn “a pair of diamond-encrusted cuff links and buttons in a Bulgari box.”

Cohn’s partner, Peter Fraser, who inherited the items, said that he later had them appraised and that they were found to be fake.

The end of “The Apprentice” shows Trump receiving liposuction to remove fat from his stomach and scalp reduction surgery to hide a bald spot on his head — a treatment that involves moving skin from a part of the scalp with hair and using it to cover bald areas.

The hair procedure was another claim put forward by Ivana in the couple’s divorce deposition, per Vanity Fair.

Ivana reportedly said the operation was carried out by her own doctor, Dr. Steven Hoefflin. She also said that Trump underwent liposuction performed by Hoefflin.

As for his choice of making this the final sequence, Sherman told Vanity Fair: “It’s really the final stage of making the monster that Roy Cohn created.”

“So visually, seeing him being operated on, it’s like Darth Vader getting his mask,” he added.