"The Apprentice" is the movie that Donald Trump does not want you to see, and it is easy to understand why. Despite taking creative liberties with the source material, historians tell Salon the new film that documents Trump's rise to political celebrity is accurate in its most important assertion: Trump was groomed for power by Roy Cohn, one of the most sinister lawyers in our nation's history.
The notion that legality and ethics are irrelevant and that the raw power wielded by society's status quo should alone determine who wins and loses has always been fundamental to far-right politics. Both in real life and in the film, Cohn summed up the most effective way to implement this philosophy with three rules for succeeding in politics, business and the law: (1) Attack, attack, attack, (2) Admit nothing, deny everything and (3) Always claim victory.
