Donald Trump’s biographer has mapped out how disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner found his way into the president’s inner circle.
Since directing Melania Trump’s movie, Ratner—who has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct—has emerged as Trump’s latest friend, accompanying the 79-year-old president on his trip to China last week.
Author Michael Wolff says that the 57-year-old director behind the Rush Hour franchise gained access to Trumpworld after he was connected with Melania, 56, through one of her top aides, Marc Beckman.
“The guy who has become Melania’s sort of main adviser, chief of staff, marketing guru, COO of Melania Enterprises ... apparently knew Brett Ratner, and that was the connection,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles in a new episode of Inside Trump’s Head.
Beckman, a producer of the Melania film, has advised Melania for some 20 years. Last month, Beckman went on a right-wing media blitz offering vague explanations for Melania’s bombshell announcement denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
But if Melania is eager to distance herself from Epstein’s orbit, Ratner is an eyebrow-raising pick to direct her film. The Justice Department’s Epstein files dump revealed a photo of Ratner sitting by the late pedophile, with his arms around an unidentified woman. Ratner claims that the woman was his then-fiancée and that he “had never been in contact” with Epstein before or after that photo was taken.
“Can you imagine any other first lady’s office approving Brett Ratner?” Coles said. “I mean, I’m not saying that Steven Spielberg would have done it, but there are so many directors that could have done this.”
Representatives for Melania, Ratner, and Beckman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Daily Beast has also reached out to the White House.
Ratner had fallen out of the Hollywood scene in 2017 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, including actress Olivia Munn. He denied the allegations, but Warner Bros. severed ties with him in 2017, and he moved to Israel in 2023.
But his widely panned documentary about Melania, which made only $16.6 million on its $75 million budget, appears to have handed Ratner a career resurgence. He is currently working on Rush Hour 4, which Trump reportedly pushed to be revived.
Ratner joined Trump’s caravan to China last week, which also included billionaire tech CEOs such as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Apple’s Tim Cook, under the guise of scouting filming locations for the movie.
He has apparently been eagerly flaunting his place in the presidential entourage.
“I got a note from a producer friend yesterday who’s been at the Cannes Film Festival saying that she ... saw Brett Ratner showing everybody his photographs of his new best friend Donald Trump in China,” Coles said.
Wolff suggested earlier this week that Trump’s newfound friendship with Ratner demonstrates that the 79-year-old is losing faith in his entourage of cronies and is branching out as a result.
“There’s no one around him. I mean, literally. Everybody is now someone to blame,” Wolff said, calling Ratner’s the president’s “security blanket.”
Find and subscribe to Inside Trump’s Head with Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of incomparable insight into the psyche of the world’s most talked-about man drop every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evening on YouTube and Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday mornings on other podcast platforms.
