Sen. Adam Schiff, one of President Trump's fiercest political opponents, publicly endorsed Trump's call for a federal film tax credit, a rare bipartisan moment driven by an industry that has lost 49,000 jobs since 2022.
Schiff, the California Democrat who led the first impeachment effort against Trump, posted on X that he is "in strong agreement with the President" and urged Congress to act immediately. The senator who built a national profile opposing Trump now finds himself echoing the president's language almost word for word, a measure of how dire conditions have become in the entertainment capital his state depends on.
Trump made the proposal after meeting with actor Jon Voight, who serves as U.S. special ambassador to Hollywood. On Truth Social, the president called Hollywood a "complete and total disaster" and urged congressional leaders from both parties to craft legislation creating a federal production incentive. Fox News Digital reported that Schiff responded within the same news cycle, calling for Republicans and Democrats to "work together" and "bring the movie magic back to America."
Bureau of Labor Statistics data show the motion picture and video industry has shed 49,000 jobs since 2022. The collapse followed a one-two punch: the COVID-19 pandemic gutted production schedules, and the streaming bubble that briefly inflated hiring burst shortly after.
California, the historic center of American filmmaking for more than a century, now trails two other states in the tax incentives it offers productions. Georgia allocates more than $1 billion in annual tax breaks. New York puts up roughly $800 million. Both figures dwarf what California offers, and foreign competitors like Canada and the United Kingdom have drawn productions overseas with their own generous packages.
The California Legislature tried to respond. Lawmakers moved to more than double the state's Film & Television Tax Credit Program to $750 million. But Gov. Gavin Newsom undercut that expansion by installing a $5 million state corporate tax credit cap over the next three years. The cap effectively limited the reach of the very program the legislature had expanded, leaving California stuck in a competitive hole of its own making.
The exodus is not just a line on a spreadsheet. Actors, crew members, and production staff have been leaving Los Angeles for cities like Nashville, citing both the cost of living and a cultural environment they find hostile.
Trump framed the incentive as a national economic play, not a favor to California. On Truth Social, he wrote:
"Congress should approve, immediately, a Federal Production Incentive to create Entertainment Jobs in America. It can be done quickly, accurately, efficiently and, importantly, will benefit ALL of America."
He also pointed to Voight and others in the industry who had urged the move, writing that "there is no incentive to be there, and it is hurting California very badly." Trump called on lawmakers to "Make our Movie and Television Production Business GREAT AGAIN, perhaps GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE."
The idea of a federal film tax credit is not new. Spencer Pratt pitched a 25 percent federal film tax credit directly to Trump at a private fundraiser, underscoring how the proposal has gained traction across different corners of the entertainment world.
Voight's role as special ambassador gives the White House a direct line into an industry that has long been politically hostile territory for Republicans. Dana White has said that hidden celebrity support for Trump would "shock" the public, a claim that suggests the political ground in Hollywood may be shifting beneath the surface, even if few are willing to say so publicly.
Schiff did not hedge. On X, the senator wrote:
"I am in strong agreement with the President. Congress should immediately take up and pass a federal film tax incentive to bring back these good-paying jobs that we've lost to other countries."
He added: "Let's work together, Republicans and Democrats, to get this done, and bring the movie magic back to America."
For a senator who has spent years positioning himself as Trump's most visible Democratic antagonist, the public alignment is striking. Schiff led the first impeachment and has maintained sharp opposition since Trump returned to office. That he would publicly credit the president and adopt nearly identical language speaks to the political pressure California's job losses are creating. When your state's signature industry is hemorrhaging workers, partisan posturing becomes a luxury.
The question is whether Congress can move fast enough. The legislative calendar is tight. September's schedule is truncated, October is consumed by midterm campaigning, and the lame duck session does not begin until November. No specific bill has been introduced, and no committee markup has been announced. Trump's call for speed, "it can be done quickly", faces the reality of a Congress that rarely does anything quickly, especially in an election year.
Newsom's $5 million corporate tax credit cap deserves scrutiny. The California Legislature recognized the crisis and acted to expand incentives to $750 million. The governor then imposed a cap that undermined the expansion's competitive value. Whether the cap was driven by budget constraints or political calculation, the result is the same: California's own leadership hobbled the state's best tool for keeping productions from leaving.
Other conservative voices in the entertainment world have been making a version of this argument for years. Kevin Sorbo left California and publicly criticized Hollywood's culture and political bias, complaints that track with the broader pattern of talent and production money flowing out of the state.
Georgia and New York did not stumble into their dominance. They made deliberate policy choices to attract productions with real money. California's response has been halting and internally contradictory, the legislature expanding credits with one hand while the governor caps them with the other.
A federal production tax incentive would do something no state program can: create a baseline that applies nationwide. Productions would not have to choose between Georgia's billion-dollar package and California's capped program. A federal credit could also claw back work that has migrated to Canada and the United Kingdom, where foreign governments have been more aggressive than Washington in courting American studios.
Trump's framing, that the incentive "will benefit ALL of America", is designed to broaden the coalition beyond coastal entertainment hubs. Film and television production supports jobs in construction, catering, transportation, and dozens of trades that have nothing to do with celebrity. Those are the workers who have borne the cost of 49,000 lost positions.
The political culture of Hollywood itself remains a separate issue. Recent episodes have reinforced the perception that the industry's loudest voices are reflexively hostile to conservatives. But jobs policy and cultural grievance are different questions, and Trump appears to be keeping them separate, at least for now.
Schiff's willingness to stand with the president on this issue strips away the usual partisan framing. If both sides agree the problem is real and the solution is a federal tax incentive, the only question left is whether Congress will act before more jobs leave the country.
When even your fiercest critic says you are right, the case makes itself. The workers who lost those 49,000 jobs do not care which party gets the credit, they just need the work to come back.
