On the eve of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, one of the most extravagant inaugural celebrations began at Washington, D.C.’s popular spot, Saks Restaurant & Lounge. Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame performed, as well as conservative VIP Ben Shapiro, comedian Terrence K. Williams and Am I Racist?. Star Matt Walsh was honored as a crowd of 600 people partied until the wee hours of the morning.
While the guest list was fitting for a Trump 2.0 celebration, some may be shocked by who sponsored the event and spent $75,000 on it. That company is none other than TikTok, and we signed a contract to host it in November. This marks a significant change from 2017, when Trump was an “unpopular figure” among mainstream media companies.
“It was kind of a coincidence that the party fell on the same day it was supposed to go dark,” said CJ Pearson, co-chair of the Republican Youth Advisory Council and co-organizer of the party. “Obviously 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 proved their allegiance in the Inauguration Rotunda on Monday, cementing their place at the top of the guest list for the next four years of the Trump administration. There is. Many in show business are wondering how close Hollywood will become to President Trump in this new era.
Those who pledged early support are being put through the social media wringer. “American Idol” star Carrie Underwood was photoshopped into a KKK robe by an X user after confirming she would perform at the inauguration. When President Trump announced this month that he would serve as a special envoy to the entertainment industry, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight were ridiculed and rolled their eyes by entertainment executives.
For some, even if it means enduring President Trump’s car attack on the industry, it’s still the case in 2020, before COVID-19, strikes and devastating wildfires crippled the Hollywood economy. Returning in 2018 would be welcomed. Members of the union, the industry’s most left-wing organization, are worried that the president’s planned import tariffs could cover runaway production and, as a result, in hard-hit hubs like Los Angeles and Atlanta. He has privately expressed his hope that he will be more motivated to shoot a movie.
One prolific independent film producer says he doesn’t care about President Trump’s politics, but he does see the president’s administration focused on how to get the movie business back on track and back to Los Angeles. “It’s refreshing to hear that,” he admitted.
The producer released a film last year documenting historic events in Los Angeles. “We had to shoot everything in Bulgaria because it cost half as much. We had to sleep in smelly hotels instead of the house we spent our whole lives buying,” he says. “I didn’t hear Biden talking about how to help us.”
As surprising as the city’s silence on the erosion of the Trump effect was to many of the powerful people interviewed by Variety, media moguls ranging from Amazon Chairman Bezos to Disney CEO Bob Iger have spoken out about Mar. It is a procession for making pilgrimages to A Lago and making donations. President Trump’s Inaugural Fund. The Golden Globes afterparty was abuzz with the news that Prime Video had spent $40 million in licensing fees for a documentary about Melania Trump. The documentary was to be directed by disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in 2017.
“Hollywood has lost its nerve,” said one chief executive of a media conglomerate.
Bezos, who celebrated Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory over Trump by saying “unity, empathy and decency are not the hallmarks of a bygone era,” is believed to have approved the deal.
Withdrawing allegiance is a natural part of the industry. In 2001, Beyoncé performed Destiny’s Child at President George W. Bush’s inauguration, but only serenaded Barack Obama when the 44th president was inaugurated in 2009. Ta. “The Sopranos” star Drea De Matteo says she voted for Biden in 2020 just because she went full MAGA. 2024 after becoming disillusioned with Democrats’ push to mandate a coronavirus vaccine.
“There’s been a bit of a shift,” De Matteo said of the city’s growing acceptance of Trump. “Hollywood will go along with anything, because at the end of the day, Hollywood is still a huge industry and they still have to make money.”
Just as the realist Mr. Iger must now respect Mr. Trump, so too must his former communications czar, Zenia Mucha. The Disney alum, known as Mr. Iger’s secret weapon to fend off PR imbroglio, is TikTok’s chief brand and communications officer, executing strategy behind the scenes. After the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to ban the Chinese-owned app in the United States, TikTok CEO Xu Chu told President Trump that he would “work with us to find a solution.” Industry insiders could see her fingerprints when she thanked him for the promise.
“The irony that Zegna, a former executive at one of the world’s most progressive Fortune 500 companies, is now being forced to lobby Donald Trump on behalf of America’s foreign enemy, China, “It’s stranger than fiction,” said Chris Fenton, the producer of “Iron Man 3,” who worked closely with Congressman Mike Gallagher, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s House Select Committee. Regarding the TikTok issue. (Mucha declined to comment.)
While the billionaire class is on good terms with President Trump, the number of actors publicly supporting the president-elect is unlikely to expand beyond a handful of executives, including Zachary Levi and Rob Schneider. Roseanne Barr was among an even smaller group who were vocal about voting for Trump in 2016. And she believes it led to her being canceled in Hollywood — none other than Iger, who fired her from the top-rated show “Roseanne” after he talked about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. He called the tweets “totally insensitive and completely disrespectful.”
“I’m very happy that Trump won because I need artistic freedom,” Barr told Variety. “And I always thought I was American. So I want it back.”
