Brett Ratner at the celebrity chef, restaurateur Wolfgang Puck's Hollywood Walk of Fame star receiving ceremony at Hollywood Blvd on April 26, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA. Image via Shutterstock.
President Donald Trump has a shady new "BFF" he has been keen to keep close to him at all times, and as his one-time biographer told The Daily Beast, this decision reveals that he is well aware of how badly all of his massive failures are going.
Michael Wolff is a longtime author and journalist who has had extensive access to Trump and his officials over the years, famously writing several books about the tumult behind the scenes of his first term. During the latest episodes of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he discussed the odd scenario playing out between the president and his Hollywood "BFF," director Brett Ratner. The disgraced Melania filmmaker accompanied Trump on his recent visit to China, with Wolff calling him the president's "security blanket."
“So when the trip in China finished — and, again, why was Brett Ratner in China? Other than to be there as Donald Trump’s BFF and security blanket, and the guy he could talk to?“ Wolff said. ”And in fact, when the trip ended, Donald Trump said to Brett Ratner, ‘I’ve got to be able to get in touch with you at all times.’”
Ratner was, at one point, a prolific, if critically maligned, director of major studio films, before allegations of sexual assault in 2017 made him a pariah in Hollywood. He has recently made a minor comeback as a close ally of Trump, notably directing the documentary about his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, which flopped at the box office after Amazon spent an unusual amount of money to produce and market, prompting allegations of bribery.
Ratner claimed that his visit to China with Trump was related to location scouting for Rush Hour 4, the comedy sequel he is returning to direct, which only exists because the president demanded that it be made.
Daily Beast editor and podcast co-host Hugh Dougherty called the situation with Trump and Ratner "crazy" and "ironic," given that it is famously easy for people to speak with the president by phone.
"He answers his phone at 6:30, at 2:30 in the morning. He’s on his phone at four in the morning," Doughterty said.
"Well, I think the issue here is Brett Ratner,” Wolff said, then imagining that Trump's mindset is essentially. “'You’re on point, you’re... my BFF, so I’ve got to be able to speak to you whenever I need to speak to you.’”
On a deeper level, Wolff explained that Trump needs new friends around him, as all his other allies are becoming figures that he is blaming for the ongoing failures of his administration.
“Well, there’s no one around him. I mean, literally. Everybody is now someone to blame,” Wolff said. “That’s the important thing — I think — takeaway here. Well, actually, there are a couple of takeaways here. But one of those takeaways is that he understands how bad things are... Now, in his way of processing that, is to blame someone else. But, of course, that doesn’t change how bad things are. And things are very bad.”
He added later: “And then, the other takeaway is a character takeaway, that the friendship with Brett Ratner exactly goes to the character of it all, or the Epstein of it all, or the Trump of it all, or the grab them by the p—— of it all.”