Donald Trump has penned a 1am rant against the “fake and classless” biopic The Apprentice, which flopped on its weekend release in the US.

The US Republican presidential candidate took to social media to lash out against the controversial movie after it opened in 10th place at the box office.

Trump said he hoped the film by director Ali Abbasi, about the former president’s rise in real estate in 1970s, would “bomb”.

“It’s a cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country,” wrote Trump wrote on Truth Social.

In one movie scene Trump is portrayed throwing his former wife Ivana to the ground and having non-consensual sex.

Trump posted of Ivana’s depiction: “My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died.

“The writer of this pile of garbage, Gabe Sherman, a lowlife and talentless hack, who has long been widely discredited, knew that, but chose to ignore it.

“So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement, which is far bigger than any of us. MAGA2024!”

The movie covers Trump’s rise from real estate developer to a household name in the 1980s and is set before he became the star of his own reality TV show The Apprentice, from which the film derives its name.

Director Ali Abbasi posted a response to Trump on X on Monday morning (US time).

“Thanks for getting back to us @realDonaldTrump. I am available to talk further if you want. Today is a tight day [with] a lot of press for #TheApprentice but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow.”

Abbasi has previously insisted his film is “not a hatchet job”.

Actor Sebastian Stan plays Trump in the drama that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The film struggled to find a distributor after Trump’s team sent a cease-and-desist letter in a bid to block its release.

Abbasi said he was stunned by the backlash.

“I am quite shocked, to be honest,” he told Variety in September.

“This is not a political piece. It’s not a hit piece; it’s not a hatchet job; it’s not propaganda. The fact that it’s been so challenging is shocking.”

The director, who was born in Iran, was condemned by that country’s government over his last film Holy Spider but he was still more shocked by the reaction to his Trump project.

“OK, that’s Iran – that is unfortunately expected. But I wasn’t expecting this [over The Apprentice],” he said.

The film did eventually sell to a small distribution company – which launched a crowdfunding campaign to get the movie into cinemas in October.