


As The Apprentice nears its theatrical release, promotion of the film about former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was apparently vetoed by two major platforms.
Citing intel from Briarcliff Entertainment, TMZ reports that ABC and CBS turned down a 15-second-long promo for the film starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong during both the Sept. 9 presidential debate and Tuesday night’s (Oct. 1) vice presidential debate.
Per TMZ, ABC — which broadcast the debate between Trump and vice president Kamala Harris last month — told the distributor that they wanted to avoid content that “[spoke] to related themes within the broadcast.”
Meanwhile CBS would consider promoting the movie during other moments in the day outside of last night’s debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz and the network’s national news coverage, but was not comfortable doing so during those primetime spots.
The biopic following young Trump’s (Stan) pursuit of power with the help of attorney Roy Cohn (Strong) is described as “a dive into the underbelly of the American empire” in its logline, per Variety. In the promo secured by TMZ, attorney Strong’s Cohn instructs Stan’s Trump, “You have to be willing to do anything to anyone to win.”
The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi defended the film during its May premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, claiming that he “do[es]n’t necessarily think that this is a movie [Trump] would dislike,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
“I don’t necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised, you know?” he continued. “And like I’ve said before, I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening talk and a chat afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign.”
The Apprentice hits theaters Oct. 11. Check out the trailer above.