Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was grilled by New York Times Dealbook author Andrew Ross Sorkin Wednesday about President Trump’s apparent effort to persuade Paramount to green light Rush Hour 4, a buddy comedy sequel from director Brett Ratner.
Trump reportedly told Larry Ellison about his desire to see the film get made, and Paramount, run by his son David Ellison, has since agreed to distribute it.
Sorkin, interviewing Bessent at his annual Dealbook Summit in New York, framed the ask as part of a larger trend of companies with business before the government seeking to placate the president.
“There is news in the past week that [Ellison] has greenlit a film called Rush Hour 4 by Brett Ratner, because the president effectively suggested, or said, this is one of my favorite films, and I want to do this for Brett,” Sorkin said. “And so now [Ellison] is doing this and people look at this and say that the president is trying to push him, and they are trying to placate the president.”
So what does Bessent think of that chatter?
“Not much,” he said, adding that “a transaction of that size” is irrelevant to how the government operates.
“The president could have said, I think it will be a great movie,” Bessent added. “I have no idea, I wasn’t there.”
Things did get tense, however, with Sorkin pressing Bessent on companies making decisions not necessarily for business reasons, but to help get deals across.
“Do you think it’s appropriate for the President to be to be asking them to do something like that? Is it appropriate for a company to be doing something on the other end to placate the president?” Sorkin asked.
“I don’t know, the Obamas have a contract with Netflix, is that appropriate?” Bessent replied, with Sorkin noting that they signed that deal after leaving office.
“These things are very complicated… if you want to start pulling on every thread, then let’s start pulling at every thread on where Chuck Schumer’s children work, let’s pull on every thread of where his staffers work,” Bessent said, before ripping into the Times, saying that it is no longer the paper of record, and that he doesn’t rea it anymore. He does, however, still watch Sorkin on CNBC, where he co-hosts Squawk Box.
David Ellison was scheduled to be interviewed at the summit, but had to back out because he is “negotiating as we speak” for Warner Bros. Discovery, Sorkin told the crowd of power players. Instead, Sorking said that David agreed to return next year, joined onstage by his father.
