Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson predicted a new film about Donald Trump's early years would "drive him out of his mind."
Trump's campaign has already called "The Apprentice," a film about the former president in the 1980s, "pure garbage."
Wilson explained to Times Radio this week why the film had gotten under Trump's skin.
"Apparently, the critics thought it was great, but his campaign team are absolutely furious about it," the Times Radio host noted.
"You know, Donald Trump's history with Roy Cohn is an area that most Americans have no clue about," Wilson said. "Roy Cohn was an attorney who counseled Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s McCarthy hearings, in which he was hunting alleged imaginary communists throughout the government."
"He met Trump in the 1970s because he had done some work for Trump's father, Fred Trump, and saw in Donald Trump the kind of amoral, unethical, post-truth environment," he continued. "A lot of the things that Roy Cohn taught Trump, never apologize, never back down on a point. If someone attacks you, attack them back 100 times more."
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Wilson said he had heard from people who saw the film.
"I've also heard from someone who saw it at Cannes directly — and said it will drive him out of his mind, it will make him crazy, and it apparently has already done so," he noted. "And so, you know, it portrays him in a very unflattering light, which is not a difficult thing to achieve."
The host said her colleagues at the Times had seen the film.
"Apparently, it shows Trump having liposuction, having scalp reduction surgery to conceal his bald patch, and indeed, physically assaulting his former wife, Ivana, and we now hear that his presidential campaign is threatening legal action," she observed. "I mean, this could potentially have a further effect on this already absolutely extraordinary presidential campaign."
Wilson agreed: "It really could, and one of the things that we saw in 2020 was that the race looked a lot like it did right now before COVID hit."
"There will likely be big externalities in this campaign that we have yet to contemplate, and there will likely be big externalities in this campaign that we have yet to process in a fundamental way," he added.
