Trump wants to prevent the release of a film in the USA that portrays him as a rapist

Donald Trump’s lawyers are trying to prevent the release of a film in the US that shows the former president raping his first wife.

Mr Trump’s legal team has sent a cease-and-desist notice to the producers of “The Apprentice,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday and chronicles his rise to fame in the 1970s and 1980s.

“The film presents itself as a truthful biography of Mr. Trump, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Trump’s lawyer David A. Warrington wrote to the film’s director and screenwriter on Wednesday.

“It is a concoction of lies that repeatedly defames President Trump and represents direct foreign interference in the American election.”

The letter accuses screenwriter Gabriel Sherman of repeatedly attacking the former president in magazine columns and of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

A controversial scene shows Trump raping his first wife, Ivana Trump, who made the claim during divorce proceedings. He is said to have done it in a fit of rage after undergoing surgery to cover a bald spot with a surgeon she recommended.

Three years later, Mrs Trump retracted that claim, saying she did not mean “rape” in the “criminal or literal sense.” But she said she felt “violated” by what happened.

Billionaire businessman Dan Snyder financed the film in the belief that its portrayal of Trump would be positive, and he is reportedly preparing a cease-and-desist letter himself.

In response to the threatened legal action, the producers of The Apprentice said: “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president. We want everyone to see it and then form their own opinion.”

At a press conference for the film in Cannes, director Ali Abbasi said: “Donald’s team should watch the film before they start suing us.

“Everyone keeps talking about how he sues a lot of people. But they don’t talk about his success rate.”

Mr Abbasi then offered to show the former president the film, speculating: “I don’t necessarily think he would not like this film.”

Stephen Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, vowed on Monday that he would “address the obviously false claims made by these wannabe filmmakers.”

“This garbage is pure fiction that builds on lies that have long been disproven,” he told Variety magazine on Monday.

“This ‘film’ is pure slander, should not see the light of day and does not even deserve a place in the DVD section of a bargain bin in a soon-to-be-closed film discount store. It belongs in a garbage container.”

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