Fleapit revisited:The Apprentice.

Donald Trump is a cunt. That's just a fact. It's not up for debate. Forget all the crazy, distraction, stuff. All the bullshit about "the late, great Hannibal Lecter", Arnold Palmer's supposedly impressive penis, and the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating cats and dogs and, instead, focus on his admiration for Putin, his admiration for Hitler, his threat/promise to end American democracy and turn the military on his political opponents, and his policy of separating children from their parents and putting them in cages.

Yes, Donald Trump is a cunt and the only people who don't think it are either so dumb it's a wonder they manage to get dressed in the morning or, far more worryingly, hoping that his cuntishness will, somehow, bring them some kind of reward. Spoiler alert:- it won't. Among Republicans warning against the danger of a second Trump presidency are John Kelly (who served as secretary for Homeland Security under Trump), Mark Milley (former Joint Chief of Staff), James Mattis (Trump's first Defense secretary), and even Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence.

In Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi's new film The Apprentice, you're never in any doubt that Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) is anything other than a complete cunt but what comes as something of a surprise is he's not the biggest cunt in the film. That dubious honour goes to Roy Cohn (an excellent performance from Jeremy Strong), the lawyer and prosecutor who served as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and, at the time of the film, is still dining out on the fact that he played a leading role in the conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951.

Cohn is a nasty piece of work and when a young Trump comes happily into his orbit, he takes time out to teach the teetotal property developer the secret of his success. There are, he says, three rules. Firstly, you should never defend yourself, you should always attack. Secondly, there is no such thing as truth - you make your own truth up. Finally, you should always claim victory - even if it is obvious to everyone else you have failed.

Take for example, losing the 2020 American election. Don't admit defeat. Just say you won (and maybe make up some bullshit about the 'deep state' to back it up). As you'll have already gathered, The Apprentice has it that Trump remodelled himself in Cohn's image but that, to my mind, lets Trump off the hook a bit which, as the film goes on, is readdressed as Trump slowly morphs into the horrendous grotesque that we have all come to know and hate. Essentially, Cohn runs the danger of being out-Cohned by his prodigy.

Cohn manages to combine being a promiscuous homosexual with being a vicious homophobe (forever accusing people of being 'faggots' and blackmailing other closeted homosexuals) while not being adverse to a bit of racism and misogyny either. Trump is so enamoured of the man that he even gets drunk (for what we must assume is the only time in his life) on neat vodka.

As Trump's star rises, Cohn's wanes but Trump keeps him nearby just in case.We see Trump woo and marry Ivana Zelnickova, the Czech businesswoman and socialite (played by Maria Bakalova), we see him fall out of love with her, and we see him rape her in a fit of rage (hey, it's Trump, don't be surprised) while at the same time he's opening up Trump Tower and talking of how he'd never want to be a politician for any other reason than hopefully getting a blow-job on Air Force One.

There's lots of little digs in the film about Trump and his unfitness for any form of public office but that's totally understandable - Trump IS unfit for any form of public office. He's not fit for anything except prison. But, as we see in The Apprentice, the capitalist world we have made doesn't punish Trump, it celebrates him in all his wretched and craven malevolence.

What stops you from actually enjoying, or getting emotionally involved with, the film is the fact there is not a single major character you can either sympathise or empathise with. Trump's family are too lightly sketched. Supposedly domineering father Fred Trump Sr (Martin Donovan) remains very much in Cohn's shadow and seems a long way off the Old Man Trump that Woody Guthrie excoriated in song, mother Mary (Catherine McNally) seems protective - although has an angry side, and alcoholic brother Fred Trump Jr (Charlie Carrick) seems to serve primarily as an easily available punchbag for both his father and his orange turd of a brother.

Elsewhere, there are brief roles for Mark Rendall as the egregious Roger Stone, Tom Barnett as Rupert fucking Murdoch (who, of course, Trump and Cohn suck up to), and - I didn't see this coming although it makes perfect sense - this being New York in a certain era, Bruce Beaton as Andy Warhol who briefly talks to Trump about how making money is an art form in itself.

Trump, of course, likes the sound of that. As he does the sound of Ronald Reagan's plan to 'make America great again'. Reagan appears on screen a few times and so does Richard Nixon who once would have been almost everyone's choice for the worst ever President of the United States. Nobody even debates that point anymore. Trump likes winning and that is one title he has already won hands down and he is in danger of being far, far worse should he be elected a second time.

Many have commented on how this film errs close to being the origin story of a supervillain in the Marvel universe. But Donald Trump is not Magneto, Thanos, or Doctor Doom. He's a human being and he's a very very dangerous human being who could, in less than two weeks, be the most powerful person on the whole of the planet (though Putin, Xi Jinping, and Trump's atrocious friend and arselicker non pareil Elon Musk may dispute that). The Apprentice (named after the most morally bankrupt television show ever, one that gave Trump, as well as the vile Katie Hopkins, a huge public platform) does a good job of showing what a cunt Trump is and was. The trouble is, and this isn't the film's thought - but the thought of the fractured and divided world we live in, it doesn't show just how much of a cunt he plans to be in the future. If there's one take away from this film it is one you probably already knew. Donald Trump was, is, and will always remain a cunt.