Trump could save the entertainment industry, Biden didn’t help

The day before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, one of the most spectacular inauguration parties began at the Sax Restaurant & Lounge, a must-see venue in Washington. Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame performed, while conservative VIPs Ben Shapiro, comedian Terrence K. Williams and “Am I Racist?” Star Matt Walsh was honored as a crowd of 600 people partied into the early hours.

Even though the guest list was about a Trump 2.0 celebration, some might be shocked to know who sponsored and shelled out $75,000 for the event: none other than TikTok, who signed on to host it in November. This marks a stark change from 2017, when Trump was persona non grata among mainstream media companies.

“It was a bit of a coincidence that the party ended up happening the same day the night was planned,” said CJ Pearson, co-chair of the GOP Youth Advisory Council and co-host of the party. “Clearly, President Trump saved the platform. It could have been a funeral, but instead it was a very, very jubilant celebration. »

Tech oligarchs like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook are firmly at the top of the guest list for four more years of Trump, after proving their loyalty on the rotunda during Monday’s inauguration. Many in show business simply wonder how much Hollywood will move closer to Trump in this new era.

Talents who pledged their support from the start have been put to the test on social media. American Idol star Carrie Underwood was Photoshopped into a KKK dress by an X user after confirming she would perform at the inauguration. Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight were mocked and stared at by showbiz insiders when Trump announced this month that they would be his envoys to the entertainment industry.

For some, a return to 2020 — before COVID, strikes and devastating wildfires crippled Hollywood’s limping economy — would be welcome, even if it meant enduring Trump’s attacks on the industry . Members of the industry’s most left-leaning contingent — the unions — are privately expressing hope that the president’s planned tariffs on imports can cover runaway production, creating greater incentive to shoot in hard-hit centers affected like Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Prolific independent film producer says he doesn’t care about Trump’s policies, but admits it’s ‘refreshing to hear the president’s office focused on how we can get the film industry back on track – and back to Los Angeles.”

The producer made a film released last year chronicling the historic events in Los Angeles. “We had to shoot everything in Bulgaria because it cost half as much. I had to sleep in a stinking hotel and not in the house I worked for all my life,” he says. “You haven’t heard Biden talk about how to help us.”

To the many actors of power Variety spoke, just as stunning as the city’s silence on the encroaching Trump effect is the procession of media moguls – from Amazon executive chairman Bezos to Disney CEO Bob Iger – making the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago or donating to Trump’s inaugural fund. Golden Globes after-parties were enlivened by news that Prime Video had invested $40 million to license a documentary about Melania Trump – to be directed by disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner, accused by six women of sexual misconduct in 2017.

“Hollywood has lost its cool,” said the chief executive of a media conglomerate.

Bezos, who celebrated Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Trump in 2020 by emphasizing that “unity, empathy and decency are not hallmarks of a bygone era,” reportedly approved of the deal.

Switching allegiances is commonplace in the industry. In 2001, Beyoncé performed at George W. Bush’s inauguration with Destiny’s Child, only to serenade Barack Obama when the 44th president took office in 2009. “Sopranos” star Drea de Matteo, says she voted for Biden in 2020 only to go fully MAGA in 2009. 2024 after being disappointed by pressure from Democrats in favor of COVID vaccination mandates.

“There’s a slight shift,” de Matteo says of the city’s growing receptiveness to Trump. “Hollywood will fall in line with anything because at the end of the day, it’s still a huge fucking industry and they still have to make money.”

Just as the pragmatic Iger must now pay tribute to Trump, so must his former communications czar Zenia Mucha. The Disney alum, known as Iger’s secret weapon for avoiding PR imbroglios, is responsible for branding and communications for TikTok and manages strategy behind the scenes. Industry observers could see his fingerprints when TikTok CEO Shou Chew thanked Trump for “his commitment to working with us to find a solution” after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling banning the Chinese app in the United States.

“The irony of Zenia – a former senior executive at one of the world’s most progressive Fortune 500 companies – now having to lobby Donald Trump on behalf of a foreign adversary of the United States, China, is quintessence of expression. “Stranger than fiction,” says Chris Fenton, an “Iron Man 3” producer who worked closely with Rep. Mike Gallagher, former chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, on the issue from TikTok. (Mucha declined to comment.)

Even if the billionaire class plays nice with Trump, the number of actors publicly supporting the new president is unlikely to extend beyond the small cadre that includes Zachary Levi and Rob Schneider. Roseanne Barr was part of an even smaller group who came out in favor of voting for Trump in 2016. And she thinks it got her Hollywood show canceled — by none other than Iger, who fired her from her top-rated show “Roseanne.” for what he later called a “completely insensitive and completely disrespectful” tweet about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

“I’m extremely happy that Trump won because I need artistic freedom,” Barr said. Variety. “And I always thought I had that as an American. So I would like to get it back.