The News
President Donald Trump has strong views about news media and an interest in asserting them; he’s long claimed credit for ending the careers of journalists and comedians. CNN staff now worry that if their company is sold to Paramount, his friend Larry Ellison may fire two of the network’s most prominent women: Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.
Somewhat less attention, however, has been paid to the ways in which Trump wants to shape popular culture outside news and late night comedy. The onetime wannabe Broadway producer brought his particular style of late 20th century over-the-top macho taste to political events, elevating professional wrestling to the Republican National Convention and inviting the 1980s icons Sylvester Stallone and Mike Tyson to the White House.
Entertainment studios have thrown the Trumps the occasional bone — Amazon paid $40 million for Brett Ratner’s documentary about Melania Trump, a presumably soft-focus project on the life of the fairly private first lady. But beyond his on-again-off-again relationship with the Murdochs, Trump’s preferences have largely been ignored by the entertainment industry titans who made him a household name. He has been forced to deliver his cultural preferences through online rants about celebrities and programming for political events and at the White House, where he commandeered the presidential aux cord.
But now Larry Ellison, one of Trump’s most prominent financial supporters, owns a second-tier studio, Paramount, and is on the cusp of taking control of the great Warner legacy, with the giant library and sprawling production that come with it.
The film producer Dallas Sonnier predicts “a wave of classically male-driven movies with mentally tough, traditional, courageous, confident heroes. Maybe even a tad cocky, but dedicated to honor and duty. Plus, of course, a few explosions, gun battles, helicopters, fistfights, and car chases!”
Now, the president is offering some creative input on potential upcoming projects.
Trump appears to want to revive the raucous comedies and action movies of the late 1980s to late 1990s. He’s passionate, for instance, about the 1988 Jean Claude Van Damme sports flick Bloodsport. A person directly familiar with the conversations told Semafor that the president of the United States has personally pressed the Paramount owner to revive another franchise from Ratner: Rush Hour, a buddy-cop comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker that blended physical comedy, martial arts, and gags about racial stereotypes.
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Ratner’s 1998 film was a breakout hit, but the film series seemed to run out of steam by 2007 with the third installment, which performed respectably at the box office but didn’t satisfy Hollywood tastemakers: “I like this movie about as much as it’s possible to like a movie with a two-star rating,” the critic Roger Ebert wrote at the time.
Then, the franchise languished for a decade. In 2017, Warner cut ties with Ratner after sexual misconduct allegations. Warner allowed the franchise to be licensed to other studios, but Ratner’s involvement was reportedly a nonstarter for several potential takers, including Paramount.
But among those in power who have embraced “anti-woke” politics, cancellation is almost a credential, and Ratner has revived his career at the highest level. He spent months earlier this year trailing Melania Trump for an upcoming documentary on the first lady for Amazon. And Arthur Sarkissian, the producer of the Rush Hour franchise, also runs the production company that made The Man You Don’t Know, a glowing portrait of Trump that premiered at Mar-a-Lago in 2024.
The movie passes several other crucial tests that have tended to garner some loyalty from the president: The stars of the franchise have also been relatively friendly (or at least muted) towards Trump over the years. After Trump’s election in 2016, Jackie Chan said: “Just give him a chance to try to change America and change the world. He’s a businessman… I think he knows how to handle these types of things.” In an interview with Piers Morgan in 2018, Tucker dodged questions about his feelings on the then-president, saying he’d met Trump once and said he “hopes he does good.”
“I want him to be successful, I want him to do the right thing,” Tucker said. (He also performed a fairly decent impression of Trump.)
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A representative for Paramount declined to comment.
Max’s view
Trump’s return to power in 2024 marked the triumph of a cultural red-lash that had been brewing for years.
Social media platforms and streaming have created spheres — professional sports, bro comedy, country music — where conservatives can reach their fans and gobble up more attentional hours, replacing center- and left-leaning programming on television and at the movie theater.
Trump convincing the Ellisons to make a new installment of Rush Hour, whose broad racial humor might have been unwelcome a few years ago (if not much earlier), may be one of the capstones of his cultural influence as president this time around.
But like all cultural movements, particularly those so closely linked to a political figure, the red-lash’s influence will wax and wane. Already, some of the big-name comedians and podcasters who lined up for Trump in 2024 are having reservations about how he has led his second term. Powerful political figures on the left are showing they’re willing to be looser with their humor than their pre-2024 counterparts.
Successful politicians often embrace elements of culture, or ride certain cultural forces to victory. But entertainment and culture most often flows against the president once they come into power, not towards them.
Notable
- The Trump-Ellison production dialogue goes beyond Hollywood and the Ellisons’ current news media assets. Earlier this week, The Guardian reported that Ellison and White House officials have discussed specific personalities that could be axed if the company is able to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company. Paramount is also set to be the likely broadcaster for the eventual UFC fight reportedly set to take place on the White House lawn.