Brett Ratner hitched a high-profile ride to China aboard Air Force One in the latest show of support President Donald Trump has bestowed on the controversial director.

The once-canceled director will use the trip to scout out locations for Rush Hour 4, his first narrative feature since being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment in 2017 (he’s always denied any wrongdoing). The buddy-cop movie, which Paramount Pictures is distributing, reunites Ratner with franchise stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

Trump departed Edwards Air Force Base on Tuesday for a summit in Beijing that will include a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The South China Morning Post was the first to report that Ratner was among those traveling with Trump, as well as the reasons why, with Ratner spokesperson Victoria Palmer-Moore later confirming the trip. It remains unclear, however, as to whether he is part of the summit’s official delegation, a roster that includes Elon Musk.

Ratner’s presence isn’t a huge surprise, considering he directed Amazon MGM Studios’ Melania, the behind-the-scenes documentary shadowing First Lady Melania Trump as she prepared for her husband’s second inauguration. The film, released in theaters in late January, earned north of $16.4 million at the domestic box office before landing on Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video.

And in November 2025, several months after David Ellison officially became Paramount’s new owner, Trump appealed to longtime friend and billionaire Larry Ellison, David Ellison’s father, to lend a helping hand. At the time, numerous sources from rival legacy studios told The Hollywood Reporter that while Rush Hour 4 has enormous box office potential, associating themselves with Ratner wasn’t worth the negative headlines.

The younger Ellison has also established his own relationship with Trump, and is counting on the Oval Office’s continued support of his bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD is the home of cable news network CNN, which has long been a target of Trump’s wrath. Trump was more than happy with the conservative-leaning changes Ellison has made at CBS News since acquiring Paramount; now, all eyes will be on what Ellison does with CNN.

Paramount, which isn’t involved with the financing or production of Rush Hour 4, referred questions about Ratner’s trip to China to his production company, RatPac Entertainment (the production outfit is owned by the London-based Access Entertainment, led by Len Blavatnik and James Packer).

The first Rush Hour film in 1998 was Ratner’s first major break on his way to developing two more films in the buddy-cop franchise that collectively earned more than $850 million at the worldwide box office, not adjusted for inflation.

In an exclusive interview with THR in January, Ratner denied he used Melania as a stepping stone to waging a comeback. “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “If anything, this was a bigger risk because of the polarization and subject matter. I didn’t do this to get me back into Hollywood. That wasn’t my strategy. I’ve been waiting to make Rush Hour 4 — that was my strategy.”