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Matthew Vaughan, the man behind the action sequel, has explained that the gags were scrapped - because he had an instinct that Trump would win the US election. The script was being developed
long before POTUS took office, but Vaughan said fears over his success were what caused him to make changes. Julianne Moore’s character Poppy initially had a line in which she said she
wanted to be the host of The Apprentice, while an Oval Office set was set to mock Trump. “We actually took out the Apprentice line because we felt it was too close to the bone,” Vaughan told
Entertainment Weekly. “I think America’s going through a pretty interesting and rough ride at the moment and I wanted this movie to be escapism. “And that means not suddenly have half the
audience going, ‘That’s not cool, that’s not funny!’ as the other half is cheering.” He added: “We were building a White House Oval Office in the style of Trump Tower. We were making it in
all gold and blinging it up. This was in May of 2016 and then I had an inkling. “I remember saying to my American production designer, ‘Trump might win, you know? Would this be as funny if
Trump won?’ And he was like, ‘Trump will never win.’ And I said, ‘You know what, I have a weird feeling he might. So let’s build a normal Oval Office and scrap the Trump version.’