“The Apprentice” star Jeremy Strong, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Donald Trump's ruthless mentor early in his career, said that "the truth is under attack."

Strong said at the Cannes Film Festival that Roy Cohen, the lawyer he plays in the controversial biopic, was the inventor of "fake news."

President Trump's lawyers threatened to sue over the film, which was released during last year's presidential campaign.

"I see Roy Cohen as the progenitor of fake news and alternative facts, and we are living in the aftermath of what I believe he created," said Strong, who is a member of the jury in Cannes.

The actor, best known for his role in the series "Succession", said we live in "a time when truth is under attack, when truth is increasingly threatened," AFP reports.

"Here, in this temple of cinema, the role of films is becoming increasingly important because they can fight these forces in the entropy of truth and can convey truths, individual truths, human truths, social truths, and affirm and celebrate our common humanity," he said.

"The Apprentice", directed by Ali Abbasi, depicts a younger Trump as a nervous, naive outsider trying to break into ruthless Manhattan.

But in a shocking scene, he rapes his first wife Ivana after she belittles him for his weight gain and baldness.

In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during their divorce proceedings, but later withdrew the accusation. She died in 2022.

The film also shows that Trump suffers from erectile dysfunction and undergoes liposuction and hair transplant surgery.

The film was finally released in October last year, before the presidential election, which he won.

During the first 100 days of his term, his administration cut federal funding for research into disinformation.

Social media platforms restricted content moderation, with Meta stopping third-party fact-checking in the United States. | BGNES