There is a Man Behind the Monster in "The Apprentice"

The life of Donald Trump is a tragedy hiding in sight as a success. A few years ago my wife and I went to an exhibit titled “The Museum of Failure,” where many failed products were on display. From New Coke to the Microsoft Zune, to the video game “No Man’s Land” (though I believe that product had the last laugh) to all kinds of different Oreo flavors, it was fascinating to see so many products that must have seemed like good ideas at the time fail so miserably. The end of the museum highlighted all of the business failures of Donald Trump while displaying his presidential portrait above said failed products.

While we made a joke that you could fail at so much and then become president of the United States, Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice” argues that his career success is his personal failure. The movie was released in theaters with a shrug from audiences who either believed the movie would be a hit piece to the former (and future) president or would be a confirmation of his worst qualities (of which they had seen quite enough of on TV every day, thank you very much). The reality is that the movie portrays Trump as neither a saint nor a monster, but as a human being who was given a raw deal in life.

I know it seems weird to refer to a man who was born in a life of privilege as being given a raw deal, but as “The Apprentice” opens we see a young Donald Trump (Sabastian Stan) looking around the room of an exclusive lounge. He is telling his date (who is very beautiful) that this room is full of very important people. That these are the people who run the world and most people don’t even realize it. His date, unimpressed with this information, excuses herself and never comes back. Trump doesn’t seem to mind as he is invited to a table by Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who knows Trump’s father, and invites the kid to sit down.

There he is treated like he is someone important, despite not doing anything to suggest he is. The next night Trump is having dinner with his family where his father Fred (Martin Donovan) tries to instill the family the importance of success. He berates Donald’s brother for being an airline pilot (he feels that pilots are little more than bus drivers with wings) and then turns his ire on Donald himself for not doing enough in the family business. Trump is looking for validation from his father, but he will find none. Years later when he has made a fortune and destroyed lives to do this, his father will finally give him the validation he always sought.

Before then, young Trump needs fatherly wisdom, and he gets it by going under the wing of Cohn, who teaches him his three life rules: always attack, never admit defeat, and always claim victory (even if you lose). Combined with a need for approval from his father, it is no wonder that his marriages fail and he becomes a man who scorns the people he seeks support from. He is a man who is constantly looking for validation to fill the void he feels in his own family, and like many others, he is seeking that validation from perceived success in the world.

When his brother falls on hard times, Trump feels compelled to shun him, having been taught not to pity others. When that same brother dies, Trump forces himself to not grieve the death, fearing that it will reveal a weakness he cannot bring himself to admit to himself. “The Apprentice” reinforces an idea that most do not want to admit: that deep down, no matter how terrible, we are all human beings. Trump was born into a family of privilege, yet he received nothing but condemnation from his father, who should have been loving and kind.

When he didn’t receive that love, he turned his affection towards another father figure, one who molded him to be deceiving and ruthless. How ironic is it then when Cohn goes to his (figuratively speaking) adopted son, and experiences firsthand just how good a job he did in teaching the man all his life lessons? Donald Trump is not a monster. He is human. He believes (very wrong) some things, but there are reasons he believes them. We don’t have to like or agree with the man, but to demonize is to trivialize how men like him come to be. It’s a message “The Apprentice” is wise to pick up on (and one that most readers are not willing to face).