Bulwark Takes: "Rush Hour 4 and the Billion-Dollar Bribe Machine"

Podcast: Bulwark Takes
Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Sam Stein
Guest: Kathryn Rampel

Episode Overview

In this sharply satirical and insightful episode, Sam Stein (Managing Editor at The Bulwark) joins forces with columnist Kathryn Rampel to discuss her latest newsletter "Receipts," focusing on the sprawling—and at times bizarre—network of corporate and international efforts to curry favor with President Donald Trump. The episode dissects how big business and foreign leaders offer gifts, invest in dubious projects (like "Rush Hour 4"), or make strategic donations, all aimed at appeasing Trump for political and economic advantage. The conversation also explores the broader consequences for the U.S. economy and corporate behavior, filled with memorable real-world examples, irreverent banter, and a tongue-in-cheek "best bribe" competition.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction & Newsletter Background

[01:30-02:24]

• Sam Stein introduces Kathryn Rampel and her new newsletter, "Receipts," praising its incisiveness, and sets up the main theme: the creative and sometimes comical ways entities try to win Trump's favor.
• Key Quote:

  "This one was kind of funny because ... you've been storing up a lot of data points for this and it was about, I don't know, how do you describe it? Like weird bribery efforts to get on Trump's good side." —Sam Stein [01:59]

2. The "Bribe Machine" — What Corporates and Foreign Leaders Are Doing

[02:24-04:22]

• Corporate and international efforts include lavish gifts (gold plaques, Rolex clocks), massive donations, and tailored business decisions.
• Michael Dell's $6.25 billion donation to "Trump accounts" is flagged as a current example—funds targeted at accounts for children accruing interest, rebranded from "Trump accounts" due to IRS pushback.
• Core Insight: The transactional nature of these gestures, often executed by people with business before the administration.
• Key Quote:

  "This is another case of someone who has clear interest before the government doing things, making strategic investments that he or she knows will, you know, go a long way towards appeasing the president." —Sam Stein [04:08]

3. The Unlikely Resurrection of "Rush Hour 4"

[04:24-07:09]

• Discussion of why the long-dormant "Rush Hour 4" movie is being made: not because of audience demand, but reportedly because Trump wants it.

• Issues cited: genre's dated humor, actors' waning careers, director's #MeToo scandal, studio mergers.

• Trump's personal interests are so influential that studios are "bribing" him by producing his favored content in hope of favorable regulatory treatment.

  "If you are Paramount, you have tens of billions of dollars potentially on the line in this proposed merger... it's pocket change to make $100 million film... even if nobody watches it, even if you lose all that money." —Kathryn Rampel [06:35]

• Notable Comparison: Netflix faces regulatory skepticism while Paramount (after "Rush Hour 4" offer) is seemingly favored by the administration.

4. Corruption and Its Economic Consequences

[07:45-12:19]

• Rampel connects the phenomenon to larger economic theory: corruption and the degradation of rule of law undermine business innovation and societal growth.

• She references the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, awarded for research on how institutional quality and corruption affect economic performance.

• Quotes & Insights:

  "When you have degradation of rule of law, when you have more corruption, you end up with worse economic outcomes. And that's because like, businesses are no longer businessing, right? They are focused on what appeases the political powers..." —Kathryn Rampel [09:53]

• Real-World Effect: Companies focus on appeasing Trump, not on better products or services.

• Example: Target adjusts inventory not for customer satisfaction, but to avoid upsetting the administration.

5. Regulatory "Parasites" and Wasted Resources

[12:19-13:21]

• Companies are devoting entire positions to monitoring Trump's social feeds and media for signals—shifting resources from innovation to political appeasement.

• "Cottage industries" emerge to serve this new kind of corporate strategy.

• Stein references how in Trump's previous term, organizations hired lobbyists solely to get on Fox News in hopes Trump would see them.

  "Your profit center, if you are a company, should never be the guy whose full time job is monitoring Trump's truth social feed." —Kathryn Rampel [12:19]

6. The Gamified "Bribe" List: Ranking the Suck-ups

[13:50-15:33]

• Rampel and Stein review a "bribe leaderboard," cataloguing the most absurd gifts and gestures for Trump:
  • FIFA's "annual Peace Prize" suggestion.
  • Tim Cook's 24-karat gold glass award.
  • Diet Coke's "first ever presidential commemorative inaugural Diet Coke bottle."
  • South Korea's gold crown and gold-topped brownie.
  • Nixon Foundation's "Architect of Peace" award.
  • Swiss Rolex desk clock and gold bar.
  • Medals, a luxury jet, honors from Middle Eastern countries, an Nvidia silicone disc, a McDonald's fry cook pin.

Notable Quote:

"The Diet Coke one is just so funny to me because the White House was clearly very excited about this. They tweeted it out as, like, look at this amazing award that that Donald Trump got. ... It's just there to suck up to the president, so he gets his Diet Coke award." —Kathryn Rampel [15:37]

7. What Would You Give Trump?

[16:27-17:21]

• Sam Stein and Kathryn Rampel play a hypothetical: What would you offer Trump if you needed to bribe him?
  • Rampel: "I think a gilded Big Mac." [16:42]
  • Stein: Suggests a custom golf course, only to realize Trump's already accumulating those.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the landscape of corporate appeasement:

  "They're not even that subtle about... the fact that they will take these bribes." —Sam Stein [07:09]

• On the inefficiency of this new normal:

  "If this president allegedly wants freer markets and an economic boom, this is not how you get it by basically dragging down companies with... a bunch of nonsense..." —Kathryn Rampel [13:21]

• On the satire of awards:

  "There's this Simpsons reference that I'm going to bungle, but it's like the Montgomery J. Burns Award for excellence in the field of excellence... It's just there to suck up to the president." —Kathryn Rampel [15:37]

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:30] Episode and host introductions
• [02:24] Overview of "Trump bribe machine" examples
• [04:24] The surprising return of "Rush Hour 4" as a corporate bribe
• [09:53] Economic impacts of corruption (Nobel Prize research)
• [12:19] Silly but significant new roles inside companies (monitoring Trump's Truth Social)
• [13:50] The "bribery leaderboard": reviewing absurd gifts
• [16:27] What would you give Trump? Hypothetical game (gilded Big Mac, golf course)

Episode Tone

The discussion is irreverent, dryly humorous (“diet coke envy,” “Montgomery J. Burns Award”), and critical of both Trump’s transactional politics and the business world’s readiness to debase itself for regulatory favor. Throughout, both Stein and Rampel maintain a playful banter while delivering substantive insights.

Conclusion

This Bulwark Takes episode skewers the escalating arms race of bribery and flattery—public and private—that keeps the gears of Trump-era business (and pop culture) spinning. Rampel and Stein offer not just a roundup of absurd and revealing examples, but a deeper dive into how such behaviors erode institutional trust and economic productivity, delivered with sharp wit and a clear sense of alarm.

For listeners who missed it:
You'll come away amused, bemused, and perhaps a bit horrified by the new normal in American political-business relations—and you'll never look at a "personalized Diet Coke bottle" or a gilded Big Mac the same way again.