The 3 Rules For Success That Explain Trump’s Character

A film review of The Apprentice

Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in The Apprentice (2024). Credit: Briarcliff Entertainment/StudioCanal

I love an Oscar-worthy performance.

So when Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Oscars for their performances as Donald Trump and Roy Cohn, that was a good enough reason for me to watch The Apprentice. I was also curious to see what insight the film would offer into Trump’s life before he became the US President.

20 years ago, I got hooked on Donald Trump’s Apprentice reality show. I enjoyed Trump’s banter with the contestants. I found him savvy, reasonable and even empathetic and charming. My perception back then didn’t match up with the living caricature he is today.

The release of The Apprentice biopic was timed to coincide with the 2024 US election. At the time, Trump hit out at those involved as “human scum,” calling the film “fake” and a “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job” aimed at thwarting his re-election attempt. He even threatened to take legal action against the producers. That piqued my interest even more.

I missed The Apprentice at the cinema, but a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed the opportunity to tick it off my watch-list. My husband purchased a one-month Netflix subscription for December, an annual pre-Christmas ritual of his. The Apprentice was scheduled to be removed from the streaming service on 17th December.

The Apprentice centres on the opposing fortunes of a young Donald Trump and his mentor, the ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn. It’s shot to resemble VHS video footage, which is effective in capturing the era in which the film is set.

Trump first encounters Cohn at a swanky members’ club. Cohn is notorious for a lack of morals and a skill for amassing dirty secrets to help him win cases. At the time, Trump was a rent-collector for his father’s property empire. He dreams of bringing glamour back to New York by buying the boarded-up Commodore Hotel on 42nd St and turning it into a luxury high-rise hotel he wants to call Trump Tower.

At first, Trump comes across as an affable and ambitious rich kid, eager to gain his father’s approval. The persistent way he woos his future wife, Ivana, is sweet.

When the Trumps are sued by the Department of Justice over their racial profiling of potential renters, Donald hires Cohn to defend his father in the legal case, which they win by blackmailing the judge.

Cohn takes Trump under his wing, teaching him the unethical tactics he uses to get what he wants. Cohn tells Trump, “You have to be willing to do anything to anyone to win.” It is Cohn’s instruction which is the catalyst for Trump’s rise to fame and fortune and moral descent.

My immediate thought after watching Jeremy Strong’s performance was “Give the man an Oscar.” Much as I enjoyed Strong’s Succession co-star Kieran Culkin’s Oscar-winning performance in A Real Pain, Strong’s performance as Cohn is a more impressive achievement. Strong portrays a nasty piece of work, and yet by the end of the film, he transforms into someone the audience feels sorry for.

The Apprentice’s opening disclaimer that some events are fictionalised left me wondering how much of the movie really happened. However, what is in no doubt is Trump’s uncanny ability to get his own way in what seem like unwinnable situations. The Apprentice’s attempt to explain how Trump acquired this skill through Cohn’s influence is the film’s central and most compelling insight.

At the time of writing, I read that Donald Trump has filed a $10bn lawsuit against the BBC for their broadcast of a doctored speech he gave to supporters on January 6, 2021, that made it appear like he encouraged the Capitol Hill riot.

A quote from Trump in the movie springs to mind:

If somebody comes after you with a knife, you shoot ‘em back with a bazooka.

Trump lives by the three rules for success he learnt from Cohn. One: Attack, attack, attack. Two: Admit nothing, deny everything. Three: No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.

It remains to be seen whether this strategy continues to work for him.

More from me:

[embed]I Felt Nothing After Watching the Fairytale Hailed as Best Picture of the Year A film review of Anoramedium.com