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When President Donald Trump visited Beijing last week for a high-stakes summit to discuss the war in Iran, Taiwan, and other complex geopolitical issues involving the world’s two biggest superpowers, an unlikely project occupied the president’s mind: Rush Hour 4.
Yes, a pending fourth installment of the buddy-cop franchise, which peaked in popularity more than a quarter century ago with Rush Hour, was a top priority for Trump, who brought the disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner as a part of the official US delegation to China to scout locations for the film. (Ratner, of course, is the same director behind Melania.) For months, reviving Rush Hour has been something of an obsession for Trump, who reportedly adores the series. So much so, that MarketWatch reports the president has acted as a “shadow executive producer” for the movie, going as far as to pressure Larry Ellison, Paramount’s biggest shareholder, to support a fourth film with Ratner in the director’s seat. It worked, and Ratner now hitches rides on Air Force One.
But set aside, for a moment, the enormous potential for conflicts of interest and generally inappropriate behavior on behalf of a president, and a simple question emerges: Rush Hour 4? Who, aside from Donald Trump…wants this? Because the enthusiasm with which Trump is personally pushing for the film could give the impression that there’s a clamoring for more Rush Hour, when, objectively, none exists.
A similar chasm can be found in reported conversations taking place between Paramount and Katie Miller to expand her eponymous podcast, which, over the last nine months, has billed itself as a place for “conservative women to gather online.” As she explained in a launch, “As a mom of three young kids, who eats healthy, goes to the gym, works full-time, I know there isn’t a podcast for women like myself.” Yet despite the show’s ability to pull in high-profile guests, including Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Mike Johnson, “The Katie Miller Podcast” struggles to attract listeners; the interviews themselves rarely make headlines. Some episodes fail to crack even 5,000 views on YouTube.
Backing illogical projects with zero audience interest could be a small price to pay as Paramount’s bid to take over Warner Bros. awaits approval from the Trump administration. Doing so fits neatly into the many moves Paramount has made to curry favor these days: creating an ombudsman to ensure a “diversity of viewpoints,” paying $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over a 60 Minutes segment he didn’t like, etc. But plans to extend a dead franchise or prop up Miller as a serious talking head appear to signal MAGA’s further descent into its “cringe era,” where quality is nonexistent, and barely anyone is watching anymore. And if they are, they are wincing.
