Trump Calls on Congress to Save Hollywood from Going Bust – His Heart Might Be in The Right Place, But He’s Wrong on This One
President Donald Trump advocates for Congress to pass a federal tax incentive aimed at reviving the American film industry, which he claims has migrated production elsewhere, notably Canada, due to high costs and lack of incentives in the U.S. He criticizes Hollywood’s current state, describing it as a “disaster” and highlighting the industry’s shift toward politically driven content and activism. Trump suggests that a federal production incentive could create American entertainment jobs and restore the industry’s vitality, but critics argue that simply providing subsidies won’t solve deeper cultural and economic issues, such as declining audience engagement and an industry increasingly influenced by progressive politics. Ultimately, opponents contend Hollywood’s decline stems from its own cultural choices and audience rejection, rather than financial incentives, and warn that government bailouts won’t resurrect a culture that has moved away from traditional or patriotic content.
President Donald Trump wants Congress to write a federal tax break to rescue the American movie business.
He said so Monday on after a meeting with Jon Voight, his Hollywood ambassador.
“Hollywood is a Complete and Total Disaster!” Trump wrote.
🚨 President Trump just met with Hollywood ambassador and movie legend Jon Voight and called Hollywood a complete disaster. Trump said film and TV production has fled to Canada and other countries, leaving California and other blue states bleeding jobs. Voight and others in the… pic.twitter.com/bwJtQ0HswW
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 1, 2026
Production has fled to Canada and other countries, he said. There is “no incentive” to shoot in the United States, and California is paying for it.
Voight and others want “Federal Tax Incentives” to “Make our Movie and Television Production Business GREAT AGAIN.”
Trump told Republicans and Democrats to craft a bill immediately. “Congress should approve, immediately, a Federal Production Incentive to create Entertainment Jobs in America.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and longtime Trump nemesis, already said he agrees. That should tell you something.
The impulse is easy to like. A lot of Americans would enjoy a Hollywood that looked like the one that made Westerns, war pictures, and grown-up comedies instead of lectures.
Make America Great Again was never supposed to stop at the factory gate.
The problem is the diagnosis.
Runaway production is real. Other countries bribe studios with credits. Streaming blew up the old economics. None of that is imaginary.
It is also not the main reason the industry is in the ditch.
Hollywood lives in a one-party state that regulates, taxes, and lectures the people who still buy tickets. Worse, the product itself turned into a sermon.
Mark Ruffalo’s progressive activism, the late Rob Reiner’s politics, and George Clooney’s media tours are the public face of the business now. Voight is a patriot. He is not the studio system.
“Midnight Cowboy” is almost 60 years old. The men who made that era are gone. What replaced them is almost entirely garbage: identity quizzes, rewritten heroes and openings that dare the audience to clap.
Conservatives did not abandon the multiplex because Canada offered a better rebate. They stopped paying to be insulted.
You cannot subsidize your way out of a product people reject.
A federal credit would send tax money to the same companies that spent a decade treating half the country as a villain. It would help blue-state balance sheets. It would not make the scripts better.
Trump gets a great many things right. This is not one of them.
A conservative movement that cannot say so is not a movement. It is a fan club.
Save the jobs if a narrow, time-limited incentive can be justified on the merits. Do not pretend a check from Congress will resurrect a culture that chose to die on purpose.
Hollywood does not need a bailout. It needs an audience. It lost that audience, fair and square.
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