On Monday, Newsom proposed a $7.5 billion federal tax incentive to encourage domestic film production. “America continues to be a film powerhouse, and California is all in to bring more production here,” Newsom said in a statement to Variety. “Building on our successful state program, we’re eager to partner with the Trump administration to further strengthen domestic production and Make America Film Again.”
Flattery will get you everywhere, but jury’s out if it will work for Gavin Newsom. He’s a very vocal Trump opponent, going so far as to file a lawsuit over Trump’s original tariff declaration. (Newsom is quite obviously angling to be the Democratic nominee for president.) On Sunday, Trump referred to him as a “grossly incompetent governor”; Newsom responded that it must be “distraction day again in Washington, D.C.” That same day, Newsom dunked on Trump’s other Cali-based idea to reopen Alcatraz prison, currently a historical tourist site: “I mean, you can’t even come up with a more colossally bad fiscal idea. Nothing about this makes any sense,” the governor told CBS Sacramento. The fact that Newsom’s ex Kimberly Guilfoyle was engaged to Donald Trump Jr., and is now the nominee for ambassador to Greece, adds a layer of strangeness to the Trump-Newsom animosity.
However, given Newsom’s idea aligns with Voight’s (and that a strong tax incentive is probably the best path forward here), the idea may have a shot. Trump’s 100 percent tariff plan is untenable on a lot of levels, but he signaled that he’d back down if the entertainment industry disagreed: “I’m not looking to hurt the industry, I want to help the industry,” Trump said on Monday (via CNBC). Of course, he had to reiterate that Newsom had failed as a leader for allowing production “to be taken away from” Los Angeles. “Hollywood doesn’t do very much of that business, they have the nice sign, and everything’s good, but they don’t do very much,” the president said.
“Governor Newsom continues to champion California’s iconic film and television industry—recognizing it as a cornerstone of the state’s economy, one that sustains hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs across every sector around the state,” a Newsom spokesperson stated to CNBC. “His plan to more than double the state’s film and television tax credit reflects a commitment to keeping production here at home, supporting workers and maintaining California’s global leadership in entertainment. If the President announces a proposal with more details, we will review it.”
