By Gavin Boyle
Hollywood was upset when President Donald Trump announced plans for a 100% tariff on any movie created abroad, partially because the plan did not align with those being proposed by his Hollywood ambassadors.
“It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvete Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California. They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK–BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in January, per Deadline.
This decree came as production in America, and Hollywood specifically, has majorly declined due to rising costs and lucrative tax incentives from other countries. Gibson highlighted the problem earlier this year when he explained just how ridiculous it has become to film in L.A. compared to anywhere else in the world.
“I had to shoot a film for one day in L.A., and it was cheaper for me to take the whole crew and fly them to Europe and shoot for three days, lodge them, fly them, everything, than it was to shoot one day just down the road,” Gibson told Fox Business. “So, there’s something really wrong there.”
To find a solution to this problem, the special ambassadors have been meeting with industry experts and lawmakers to field ideas to pitch to Trump. Last week, Voight met with the president to pitch the first round of ideas, which centered around federal-level tax incentives, along with changes to tax code, subsidized training programs, creating co-production treaties with foreign nations and tariffs in limited, specific circumstances.
“We look forward to working with the administration, the unions, studios, and streamers to help form a plan to keep our industry healthy and bring more productions back to America,” Voight said, per Business Insider.
Keeping in line with his broader policy, however, Trump seems to have only focused on the tariff aspect, announcing a 100% tariff would be placed on every movie and TV show produced abroad. This move has the industry in a panic as it would only result in production costs soaring, causing studios to slow down their output while offering no guarantee that a significant number of jobs would return to Hollywood. Furthermore, the industry, which is already cautious with every project it greenlights, would become even more wary, as every piece of content made would have to be a major hit to recoup the cost of production, further hurting the industry.
The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) May 4, 2025
Related: Did President Donald Trump Just Sink or Save Hollywood?
California Governor Gavin Newsom was a particularly vocal critic of the tariff plan, announcing he would combat the issuance of the tariff in court. Later, he urged the president to reconsider tax incentives as a way to bring production back without killing the industry.
“We’ve proven what strong state incentives can do,” Newsom wrote on X, per Business Insider. “Now it’s time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again. @POTUS, let’s get it done.”
Whether a federal-level tax incentive program would save the industry is still a question, but for now an even bigger mystery is if Trump will consider more of Voight’s suggestions, or only move forward with his tariff plan and leave the other proposals behind.
Read Next: How the Global Trade War Impacts Hollywood
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