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Jon Voight confirmed that he “brought forward recommendations” to President Donald Trump for tariffs on movies made outside the U.S.
After Trump announced he is authorizing the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to start the process for enacting a 100 percent tariff on American films that are produced in “foreign lands,” it was speculated that Voight was responsible. Now the actor has released a short video describing his intentions.
“I recently met with our president, Donald J. Trump, who loves the entertainment business,” Voight says in the video, posted to his account on X and titled “Plan to rescue Hollywood.” “[He] wants to see Hollywood thrive and make films bigger and greater than ever before, as he says, and see productions come back to American Hollywood. The Hollywood that I fell in love with when I was a child and was honored to contribute to during my career. Our industry recently has suffered greatly over these past few years, and many Americans have lost jobs to productions that have gone overseas. It’s been very serious. People have people have lost their homes. Can’t feed their families.”
He continued, “After meeting with many of the entertainment leaders, I have brought forward recommendations to the president for certain tax provisions that can help the industry. Some provisions that could be extended and others that could be revived or instituted. This would help the movie and television production and our beloved theaters that are so important to the American family experience.”
Voight further outlined his plans in a press release sent Monday by a representative for Voight and his business partner Steven Paul. It involves a combination of federal tax incentives, tax code changes, co-production treaties, and infrastructure subsidies for theater owners, production, and postproduction companies, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Notably, the press release only briefly mentioned tariffs, calling for “tariffs in certain limited circumstances,” not the 100 percent on all foreign films that Trump announced. The plan comes from months of meetings between Voight, his team, and entertainment stakeholders, including studios, streamers, and guilds. Voight and Paul confirmed that they met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, and said the White House is “reviewing” their proposals.
Voight, a longtime Trump supporter, was named as one of Trump’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood earlier this year alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone. “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest,” Trump said at the time. “It will again be, like the United States of America itself, the Golden Age of Hollywood!”
Those themes were echoed in Trump’s announcement of the murky film tariff plan on Sunday. The president said he was authorizing 100 percent tariffs on films produced in “foreign lands,” also known as runaway productions. Trump called these productions a “national security threat” and claimed they’re causing the film industry to die “a very fast death.”
“Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding: “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
It is true that film jobs, especially in California, have declined significantly in recent years because of high production costs and fewer incentives. While many productions have moved to other parts of the United States (like Atlanta), they’ve also gone abroad thanks to lucrative incentives offered by countries like the U.K. and Canada. But many films also shoot overseas for creative, not economic, reasons, and ostensibly these films would also be hit with the 100 percent if implemented.
