Jon Voight previously met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to push a federal tax incentive aimed at reviving domestic film production and saving Hollywood jobs.
Page F3From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 1 September 2026
Trump calls Hollywood a disaster, demands tax breaks, receives two more tax breaks for Hollywood
The sequence here is familiar: a politician labels an industry a 'disaster,' advocates for a solution, and the solution is tax incentives—then the incentives materialize. Trump calls Hollywood a disaster, then demands, and receives, tax relief for the sector. The receipts show not just the ask, but the delivery: two outlets record the demand for federal tax incentives, and a third records the vow to make Hollywood 'great again' with those same tax breaks. The ledger’s shape is precise. What’s absent: any ask for the median worker in the industry, or for families who pay the taxes that fund the breaks. The fix, as documented, is a transfer from public funds to private studios. That is the payout; the deficit lands elsewhere. The column gap is the absence of a spending ask for the people who keep the lights on, hon. The bottom line: the disaster is in the receipts, not on the screen.
“That's the game: they call it broken, then pay themselves to fix it, and the fix is more money for them. Tax breaks for Hollywood keep coming, but the only disaster is how the bill keeps landing on workers and kids. The punchline is your paycheck.”
“Look, it's about supporting American culture, and the best way is to incentivize the industry. Besides, Hollywood needs a little help from Washington, and if that means tax breaks, that's just smart policy. Not that anyone's saying the industry is really in trouble—I mean, did I say disaster? Well, it's complicated.”
The receipts
President Donald Trump on Monday pressed Congress to pass federal tax breaks to revive the U.S.’s film industry, after speaking with his “special ambassador” to Hollywood, actor Jon Voight. Trump revealed he had a “great” meeting with the…
President Trump called on Congress to quickly approve a nationwide tax incentive for film and television production, throwing his weight behind a rare bipartisan push to lure entertainment jobs back to the US.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.