Trump Just Threw His Support Behind a Federal Tax Incentive To Bring Hollywood Production Back Home

Runaway production has been one of Hollywood’s most persistent headaches for years, with studios increasingly chasing cheaper tax incentives in places like Canada, the UK, and Australia rather than filming at home. That shift has hit California particularly hard, draining jobs from crews, unions, and local businesses that once relied heavily on a thriving domestic industry.

The push to reverse that trend has been building steadily behind the scenes, with industry groups, unions, and lawmakers from both parties spending more than a year quietly laying the groundwork for a national solution. That effort finally got the signal it had been waiting for this week.

Donald Trump is pushing for a federal tax incentive to encourage more film and TV production to happen in America. In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “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… What we watch on the Silver Screen should be made in what was once the Movie and Motion Picture Capital of the World. Let’s get this done!”

Trump’s endorsement follows months of lobbying from actor Jon Voight, who has served as an informal go-between connecting Hollywood industry groups with the White House. Voight, along with business associates Steven Paul and Scott Karol, had previously presented Trump with a range of options for boosting domestic production, with the president initially gravitating toward tariffs before shifting his focus toward a tax credit approach instead.

That earlier tariff threat, a proposed 100% levy on films produced overseas, had drawn confusion from industry insiders given how difficult it would be to implement, since most productions blend both domestic and international shooting locations. This latest announcement marks a clear pivot away from that idea and toward a policy model closer to what other countries already offer.

The response from industry leaders came quickly. Motion Picture Association CEO Charles Rivkin praised the announcement, calling a federal incentive “a landmark step toward bringing more production to local communities in all 50 states, strengthening our nation’s economy, and making our country a more competitive place to produce, create, and tell great stories.”

Support for the idea has also spanned party lines in Congress. Senator Adam Schiff has publicly backed a federal tax credit and held a hearing on the topic earlier this year, while Representative Laura Friedman of Burbank has spent the past year working with Republican colleagues, unions, studios, and producers to build support for national incentive legislation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has separately pushed for federal involvement as well, previously calling for a $7.5 billion national incentive program while pointing to the state’s own decision to more than double its film and TV tax credit program to $750 million annually.

With backing from studios, major entertainment unions including SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, and the WGA, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, the pieces now appear to be in place for genuine bipartisan legislation. Whether Congress can actually move quickly enough to translate that support into a finished bill remains to be seen, especially with midterm elections looming on the horizon.

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