‘Rush Hour 4’ Is A Go. What Else Can President Trump Greenlight?

We’ve never had a pop culture force in the White House quite like President Donald Trump.

Yes, even the Gipper himself, President Ronald Reagan, didn’t grasp star power the same as Trump. Granted, Reagan’s Hollywood days gave him a unique take on culture and the arts and earned him the moniker, “The Great Communicator.”

President Trump understands that realm, too, along with our new social media age.

Now, Trump is using his leverage to make movies great again. Or, at least, one franchise in particular.

Reports say Trump had a hand in the “Rush Hour” franchise revival at Paramount. The saga’s director, Brett Ratner — canceled during the MeToo movement for unproven sexual assault allegations — is also directing the upcoming Melania Trump documentary, “Melania” (January, 2026).

Those ties likely helped make a fourth “Rush Hour” film happen.

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

In an era when Hollywood studios cast a wary glance at right-leaning audiences, President Trump is using his bully pulpit to shape pop culture.

That gives him a golden opportunity to do more than revive a stalled franchise.

So, which other film projects are deserving of a presidential nudge?

It’s cinematically sacrilegious to remake “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but what about a sequel starring a middle-aged Ferris? The sequel could find Matthew Broderick’s character saddled with a mortgage, two ungrateful kids, and a marriage to Sloan that has long lost its spark.

Yet, for one glorious day, the older Ferris finds his inner teen, goes on a grand adventure, and realizes the beauty lurking within adulthood. The only issue could be if the John Hughes estate would allow it – the late Hughes wrote and directed the 1986 classic. It’s still worth a try, if merely for the Reagan-era nostalgia.

Paramount Pictures. 1986.

The 1994 comedy “PCU” was both ahead of its time and, sadly, a box office misfire with under $5 million from stateside theaters. The comedy skewered the growing “politically correct” movement in American universities, one that presaged a full-blown woke revolution 20 years later.

The comedy still landed some stingers, especially given the academia targets on display. Why not remake the film from today’s college prism? Could the material cover everything from absurd college courses on “Swiftology” to darker riffs on college antisemitism?

If a direct remake doesn’t make sense, what about a sequel to “Old School?” That frat-style comedy found grown men starting their own Greek-style fraternity. Maybe an “Old School” spin where characters try the same shtick today but run into a furious woke mob rebuffing their efforts to party like it’s 1999?

Comedy has struggled since woke took over Hollywood. Even Variety magazine inadvertently admitted as much. Signs suggest its stranglehold on the culture is waning. That gives Team Trump a chance to bring back bawdy, R-rated comedies to a film landscape in dire need of a laugh.

And while blockbuster films often struggle to make a profit due to their gargantuan budgets, screen comedies are infinitely cheaper to produce.

Trump is reviving Ratner’s career with the “Rush Hour” project. He also could reach out to “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips while he’s at it. Phillips famously said he stopped making comedies (he also directed “Old School” and “Road Trip”) due to woke’s censorious nature.

Coax Phillips back into the comedy business and see what happens next.

We may not need-need a fourth “Rush Hour” film, but its existence is a thumb in the eye to the woke mind virus sufferers. The saga’s willingness to poke fun at cultural stereotypes typified a better time.

Hulton Archive via Getty Images

If wisecracks about Asians and black people truly were offensive, stars Chan and Tucker might have said something mid-production, no? Earlier this year, USA Network got offended on behalf of those communities. The cable channel inserted a trigger warning before the first “Rush Hour” feature:

We all love our buddy comedies, but this movie was created in a different time. FYI certain depictions, language and humor may seem outdated and at times offensive.

Do you understand the words coming out of our mouths?

Which brings us to Phillips’ “Hangover” saga. Once again, the third installment showed the formula was wearing thin. Some franchises should call it a day, no matter how profitable they may be. That third “Hangover,” the weakest of the trilogy, made $362 million globally.

Warner Bros. Legendary Pictures. Green Hat Films.

A revival would do more than give its studio a boost. It would signal the woke era’s official collapse. After all, the film followed four straight white males who drank too much, ogled women, found themselves in deep trouble on multiple fronts, but ended up living happily ever after.

No lectures. No Girl Boss characters dressing them down. No forced diversity measures – co-star Ken Jeong stole scenes on his own, thank you. Just R-rated high jinks, the kind that used to power endless dumb but hilarious comedies.

And, yes, the usual media suspects would tsk-tsk these projects, telling us how problematic they are and why no one should laugh at them. And most Americans would give those articles a shrug, at best.

Some might even laugh out loud while reading them.

No one person can lift Hollywood out of its current, sorry state. At the very least, President Trump could Make Hollywood Funny Again.

* * *

Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

* * *

50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek.