Election Year Trump Biopic ‘The Apprentice’ Premieres at Cannes 

Director Ali Abbasi poses close to photographers on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the film "The Apprentice" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Director Ali Abbasi poses close to photographers on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the film "The Apprentice" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Election Year Trump Biopic ‘The Apprentice’ Premieres at Cannes 

Director Ali Abbasi poses close to photographers on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the film "The Apprentice" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Director Ali Abbasi poses close to photographers on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the film "The Apprentice" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2024. (Reuters)

"The Apprentice", Iran-born director Ali Abbasi's much-anticipated drama of a young Donald Trump's ascendancy as a New York real estate mogul, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

Part of the pull of the film is its timing, as Trump, now 77, looks to win another term as US president in November.

The film shares its title with the reality show that helped turn Trump into a household name.

Sebastian Stan, who made his name in the Captain America trilogy as the Winter Soldier, morphs into Trump, from his early stages as an upstart working for his father's business to a brazen, self-centered tycoon.

The story focuses on Trump's time under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, a political fixer best known for his involvement in Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist scare campaigns of the 1950s and portrayed by "Succession's" Jeremy Strong.

His three rules for success, which Trump later takes credit for while speaking with the writer of his business advice book "The Art of the Deal", are prescient of his traits in office: deny everything, always be on the attack and never admit defeat.

Abbasi is known for his eclectic film repertoire, including 2022's Cannes entry "Holy Spider" about the killings of sex workers in Iran and "Border", a fantasy love story in Sweden.

Critics were mixed, praising for Stan and Strong while seeing the film's basis in actual events as a limitation.

"Sebastian Stan Plays Donald Trump in a Docudrama That Nails Everything About Him but His Mystery," read the headline for entertainment website Variety, while trade publication IndieWire pointed out that the film "can't get around the fact that Trump is too base and pathological to be of much dramatic interest".



Conan O’Brien Decries ‘Bullies’ While Receiving Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize 

Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)
Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)
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Conan O’Brien Decries ‘Bullies’ While Receiving Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize 

Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)
Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)

Conan O'Brien accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday with a not-so-subtle broadside against President Donald Trump, whose takeover of the Kennedy Center, which awarded the prize, has shaken the arts world.

A host of comedians including David Letterman, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert celebrated O'Brien for comic greatness while ribbing the Trump administration and putting a spotlight on the renowned arts facility that is now overseen by Trump allies.

But it was O'Brien, the longtime late-night television host and comedy writer, who aimed his comments most directly at the Republican president without using his name.

"Twain hated bullies," O'Brien said. "He punched up, not down. And he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak."

O'Brien described the award's namesake as "allergic to hypocrisy" and suspicious of populism and imperialism. "He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed," O'Brien said.

Trump, who came into office in January, has spent the last two months implementing much of the populist agenda that helped him get elected last year while advocating for US annexation of Canada and Greenland, firing federal workers, and deporting migrants who were in the United States illegally.

The show was the first signature event at the Kennedy Center since Trump announced he would become chairman of the institution, pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.

Trump dismissed board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and installed officials loyal to him. He handed leadership reins for the facility to Richard Grenell, a close ally and former ambassador to Germany who is serving as envoy for special missions in Trump's current administration.

The new board, which includes White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, fired its former president, Deborah Rutter.

Trump visited the center last week and declared it in "tremendous disrepair." O'Brien thanked Rubenstein and Rutter in his remarks, drawing loud applause from the audience.

"When he accepted the Mark Twain Prize, this was a very different place," Colbert said from the Kennedy Center stage. "Today they announced two board members: Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor," Colbert quipped, referring to the former president of Syria and a cartoon villain.

COMEDY GIANT

Other comedians joked that this would be the last Mark Twain Prize awarded by the Center. John Mulaney cracked that the facility, which is seen as a memorial to slain former President John F. Kennedy, would be renamed after Roy Cohn, a political fixer known for his role in Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist scare campaigns of the 1950s, and a lawyer for Trump in his early years in business.

Along with the annual Kennedy Center Honors in December, the Mark Twain Prize is one of the premier events at the renowned arts institution.

Trump did not attend the event on Sunday and did not attend any of the Honors performances during his first term.

O'Brien hosted the Oscars earlier this month and is slated to come back in the emcee role next year.

He was the host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" on NBC and "Conan" on TBS. He is a former writer for "Saturday Night Live."

"You are a genius, my friend," comedian and actor Will Ferrell said from the stage.

"You're an absolute giant in the world of comedy," said actor and comedian Tracy Morgan.

O'Brien told reporters before the show that he wanted to go through with the event to support Kennedy Center workers. "Our country has been through many different sea changes, and my thought is I will be here specifically to honor Mark Twain and the people that this award stands for," he said.

Previous winners of the Mark Twain Prize include Kevin Hart, Sandler, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Carol Burnett. Sunday's show will be available for viewing on Netflix on May 4.