Trump Pushes For Federal Film Tax Incentive After ‘Great’ Meeting With Jon Voight

Hollywood has spent years watching productions slip away to international hubs offering steep tax breaks, and the anxiety over runaway production has only intensified as studios and streamers chase cheaper deals abroad. That growing unease has made its way straight to the White House, where entertainment industry advocates have been quietly building support for a solution on Capitol Hill.

Much of that lobbying effort has run through Jon Voight, who has spent well over a year serving as one of President Trump’s self-appointed Hollywood ambassadors alongside actors like Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone. Voight has consistently pushed for federal-level incentives to keep production dollars inside the United States, and his latest meeting with the president appears to have moved the needle in a significant way.

On Monday, Trump took to Truth Social to detail what he called a “GREAT and very interesting meeting” with Voight, describing the actor as someone who “feels strongly about the Motion Picture and Television Industry.” Trump didn’t hold back on his assessment of the industry’s current state, writing that “Hollywood is a Complete and Total Disaster” and that production work has largely dried up in the region.

From there, Trump laid out his plan in unusually direct terms. “I am going to suggest that Republicans and Democrats get together, and immediately craft Legislation to save the Movie, Television, and Entertainment Business in America,” he wrote, adding that Congress should move quickly to approve a federal production incentive aimed at creating entertainment jobs nationwide.

Trump also argued that the upfront cost of such incentives would pay for itself many times over, framing the investment as something that could return significant revenue to the Treasury through increased economic activity. He capped the post by declaring that “what we watch on the Silver Screen should be made in what was once the Movie and Motion Picture Capital of the World,” calling on lawmakers to “get this done.”

The proposal didn’t emerge in a vacuum. According to reporting on the meeting, Voight and his associates have spent recent months meeting with numerous film and television organizations, including guilds, unions, studios, and streamers, to gather input on what changes would actually help bring production back stateside. That groundwork appears to have shaped the specifics behind Trump’s renewed push.

Reaction from industry leadership was swift and largely positive. Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin praised the announcement, noting that a federal incentive would mark “a landmark step toward bringing more production to local communities in all 50 states” when he spoke to Fox News Digital.

The idea of a federal tax incentive isn’t entirely new. Lobbying groups, including the Motion Picture Association and various labor unions, have spent months working to build bipartisan momentum for legislation of this kind, with Republican lawmakers reportedly waiting to see whether the White House would formally back the effort before moving forward.

With Trump’s public endorsement now on record, attention shifts to whether Congress will actually take up the legislation and how quickly it might move. For an industry that has watched production increasingly migrate to countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, the stakes of getting this right could shape where movies and television shows get made for years to come.

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