The Apprentice: Choices behind the 47th president of the United States
We are all born the same. We all come out of the womb equally ill prepared for what this world holds for us. The only thing that separates us is the choices we make. Everyday we make little decisions which slowly start to accumulate and form an identity. Our habits, actions, and values are not hereditary: they are what we learn and most importantly, what we choose to accept. We ultimately bear the responsibility for who we end up becoming. The choices we make shape the people we develop into.
Donald James Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. He was the most googled man in the United States in 2024 and is, by every measure of the word, a polarizing figure. Therefore, one can’t help but wonder—how did Donald Trump become the man he is today? What are the choices he made that created the entrepreneur and political disruptor we now know?
In the movie The Apprentice those questions about Trump's origins and choices are answered. His business dealings, almost as popular as his politics, are at the center of the movie. Like his political campaign, his journey into New York real estate was shrouded with controversy. Decisions with questionable motives and twisted ethics marked his accession to billionaire status as he scaled his father Frank Trump's real estate business to new heights. The Apprentice shows us how the influences in Trump’s life converted him from an honest business man into a disingenuous entrepreneur and how he made the choice to lean into his mentor’s unethical methods: ultimately corrupting him and his values.
Everybody has and needs a mentor. Central to Donald's story was his mentor Roy Cohn. Between being indicted 12 times and defrauding a dying client, Roy Cohn earned the title of “a new strain of son of a bitch.” Nonetheless, he was an incredibly successful lawyer. Even if tainted by his immoral dealings, Roy Cohn boasts an impressive 36-0 resume. He notably served as general Mccarthy's chief counsel during the red scare as well as being prosecutor behind the Rosenberg's espionage trials. Nowadays though, he is most famously known as the mentor who trained Donald Trump.
Donald Trump was the youngest admitted member to the Commodore, an elite and exclusive New York city club, a fact which he took great pride in. During the first scenes in The Apprentice, he is shown bragging about his membership and the significance it imposes upon him. He rambles to his date about the club and how he is now one of the esteemed and coveted members. The early scenes of the movie set up Donald as an ambitious young man who is fanatically obsessed with the world of business and achieving success.
While in the club, he examines the room of multimillionaires. Money, fame, power, everything he desired surrounded him. Then, in what feels like a moment of destiny, he locks eyes with Roy Cohn. Roy is seated in a private room with his powerful clients and intimidating henchmen surrounding him. He invites Trump in and there is an evident power difference. Trump is shy; he walks in slowly and acts reserved and professional while Roy mocks him for not drinking alcohol and for his business failings, calling him a faggot to top it off.
At the start of the movie, Trump truly was an honest and genuine business man. Even while being ridiculed by Roy, he acts professional and talks straight business. Later, he is seen doing the rounds of his company's condos collecting rent, making genuine pitches to investors, trying to make his way straight and narrow in New York City. Only issue was, it hadn’t been working. His tenants were spitting in his face. Investors barely heard him out. He simply was unable to become the man he aspired to be. So he goes back to Roy Cohn and begs for his help. This is where his mentorship began, and it was based on Roy Cohn's 3 rules of winning:
Attack, Attack, Attack
Admit Nothing, Deny Everything
Claim Victory, Never Admit Defeat
These rules, as twisted and immoral as they are, worked. It was by blackmailing the head of the department of justice that Roy got the case against Trump dismissed and it was by extorting the head of the city commision that Roy was able to get a historic tax exemption.
Trump was picking up a winning streak, and he didn’t want to stop. He started to build the Trump Tower, multiple complexes in Atlantic city, expanding without any reservation. Those moments of early achievement that Roy had gifted Trump marked a sharp shift in the young businessman’s attitude. He observed the tactics that allowed him to finally taste success and he didn’t bat an eye. He had no issue compromising his ethics and being tied in with the corrupt reputation of Roy Cohn since all he cared about was victory.
It was through these deals that we saw Trump abandon the innocent and honest business man he was. Instead of looking at all these results and seeing them for what they are, immoral and unearned deals, he makes the choice to look past the moral scruples of Roy Cohn’s methods. Since the start of the movie at the Commodore, Donald has been so infatuated with success that when he finally felt it, he made the choice to abandon all his standards: making clear where his priorities lie.
This new reality sets in when at the unveiling of the Trump tower, Donald's father says “You’re a killer now, a king”. At that moment, the movie slowed down. A somber song begins to play as the camera focuses on Donald and shows him in a deeply reflective and contemplative state. He realises what he’s done, his achievements and what it took for him to get there. Finally, he smiles. He holds no regret. He knows what he’s done, the choice he’s made to turn into a, albeit successful, cheating and corner-cutting businessman. He’s ultimately proud of the man he’s become.
As I reflect on my own ambitions, I recognise parallels with Trump's journey, driven by a desire for success. From the internships and studying over the last four years to my choice of college and work experience for the next four years, everything has been geared toward me reaching the very high standard of success that my parents set. I am young, ambitious, and driven just as Trump was. However, the Apprentice showed me that “making it” isn’t all that matters. Trump was undeniably able to scale his business, but at what cost? He manipulated, lied, became known not for being a prolific business man, but a cheat. There will always be pressure in our lives to make the wrong choices. Roy Cohn was that pressure in Donald Trump’s life. He opened up Donalds character to the moral reckonings we know today. While Trump made the choice to lean into Roy’s “win at all costs” methods, I realize now, after seeing Trump's journey and its end, that I am not someone who will give in to the “no matter the cost” mindset. Sure success is important to me but so is being a decent and kind person. I won’t define my life by how many deals I closed and how many buildings were named after me, rather by the values I uphold and the positive impact I have on others.
Ultimately, the Apprentice to me is a must watch. It tells us about the origins and the business journey of the most famous man in the world which serves as a cautionary tale about the choices we make in the pursuit of success. It highlights how easily our morals can be compromised and therefore make us realize that we must be careful with our choices since they are what create our character and legacy.