Academy Award winner Jon Voight says he personally persuaded President Trump to support a federal film and television tax credit during a late August meeting, a push that has since triggered a lobbying campaign to bring runaway production back to American soil.
Voight, 87, sat down with Trump alongside his manager Steven Paul and associate Scott Karol to make the case that the American film industry, once the envy of the world, is hemorrhaging jobs overseas because foreign countries offer better financial incentives. By the time the meeting ended, Trump had dictated a Truth Social post backing the policy while the three men watched.
Rep. Brian Jack, a Georgia Republican, credited Voight directly at a press conference held in support of the proposed tax credit. "We all saw the evolution of the president's direction on this," Jack said. "That is because of Jon Voight."
Trump named Voight his "special ambassador" to Hollywood in early 2025. Since then, Voight, Paul, and Karol have built a coalition that includes unions, studio heads, and industry organizations, all focused on stemming the flow of American productions to cheaper foreign locations. The late August sit-down was at least their second meeting with the president on the subject.
Paul, who manages Voight and works as a producer, described the pitch in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
"Jon made an impassioned plea to the president of the United States, telling him first of all he's been part of the entertainment business, so he understands it as well, if not better than most... and really explaining to him the state of the industry, which is in dire straits."
Paul added that he told Trump he was being "forced to go overseas" as a producer, and that he was ashamed of it. He described planning to make a movie about a former president and having to take the production out of the country. Karol, who leads SP Media Group, supplied the data: how a federal tax credit would bring jobs back and benefit American workers.
Trump's response, as Paul recounted it: "How can I be helpful?"
Voight described the moment in detail. The trio had prepared a written letter with their key points, trimmed to what they called "the minimum words and the most effective words," knowing the president's time was limited. Trump listened, then called over aide Natalie Harp.
Voight recalled the scene with visible energy:
"He says to her, 'Let's put Jon on video when he reads this.' I say, 'Holy smokes, I felt like Nixon talking and being recorded all the time when he was in office. He didn't do very well with that. Oh, don't record me on anything,' I'm saying to him."
After the presentation, Trump turned to Harp and said, "Natalie, take this down." He composed the Truth Social message right there, with the three men offering thoughts as he worked through it. Voight said Trump ended with a directive: "Let's get this done."
"He created it right in front of us, this Truth Social message," Voight said. "Steven stood up and applauded and I saluted. I said, 'We did it, gee whiz!' I'm moved even now as I remember it. We knew what had happened in that room."
That post set off what the Hollywood Reporter described as "a frenzy of lobbying" in support of the federal film tax credit.
Voight, who won an Academy Award for his performance as a Vietnam veteran and paraplegic in Coming Home and is well known as one of Hollywood's most prominent conservative voices, has deliberately kept the tax credit push nonpartisan. He stressed that the Tuesday press conference brought together people from across the political spectrum.
"The most moving thing about today is there was no left and right, there was no separation," Voight said.
Karol backed him up, saying Voight had insisted from the start that the effort had "nothing to do with right and left" and was instead "about Hollywood and making great movies and film and television in America, where it should be made." Paul put it more bluntly: "Nobody talked about their politics, that's what's great about it. Did anyone talk about their politics on that call just then? They were all Americans who love America and love the entertainment business."
Sean Astin and Laura Friedman also spoke during the press conference call in support of the credit, though their specific remarks were not detailed.
The proposed federal tax credit would financially incentivize productions to film in the United States and could be paired with existing state-level programs. The Motion Picture Association says 39 states already have their own film and television tax incentive programs. Karol cited a lower figure of 26 states with incentives, noting that many states without programs could still benefit from a federal credit.
Karol laid out the broader economic argument: the credit would not just help studios and actors. It would reach truckers, hotel chains, restaurants, and small businesses in states far from any soundstage. He pointed to companies in Arkansas, restaurants in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas, all of which see economic activity when productions come to town.
He also noted that other industries, farming, semiconductors, alternative energy, already receive federal incentives that do not touch every state. A film tax credit, he argued, could encourage states that currently lack their own programs to create them, expanding production beyond traditional hubs like Georgia.
Voight drew on his own career to make the point personal:
"I've filmed in so many states, Louisville, Kentucky, North Carolina. When we moved into those states with the movies we were making, boy it really changed the atmosphere in those towns and gave a boost to those towns. And that's going to happen all over the country."
Voight argued that a federal tax credit would produce immediate results. "If we get on an even keel with the rest of the world's tax benefits, if we get that break, there's going to be an explosion of energy," he said. "It will be immediate. As someone mentioned, our business is a shovel-ready business. They will call people tomorrow, people will be getting ready immediately."
He framed the effort in broader cultural terms, too. "The United States created this industry, and it was our cultural connection with the rest of the world," Voight said. "They fell in love with America because of everything that came out of Hollywood. And these great artists that came before me, they were magnificent."
His appeal was direct: "Now if they're having a little difficulty, can't we give them a little help? C'mon, what are we doing here? To bring it back to its former glory is a big deal, because that former glory is as bright and beautiful as it can be."
Paul suggested that Trump needed less convincing than people might expect. "He has a love for the entertainment business. He's been part of the entertainment business and he's had success in the entertainment business," Paul said. "Once we gave him all of the facts, as Jon said, he's pretty quick." Paul recalled Trump praising Voight's 1979 film The Champ, calling it "one of the greatest boxing movies ever."
Paul also shared an anecdote from an earlier meeting. After Voight read a prepared letter, Trump told him: "Great letter, sign it to the greatest president of all time." Voight did.
The legislation still needs to move through Congress, and key details, the bill's name, its sponsors, its specific structure, remain unclear. But Voight, Paul, and Karol left the press conference confident that the momentum is real and the coalition is holding.
For decades, Hollywood has lectured the rest of America about how to live. Now it is asking for help, and the man who answered the call is one of the few people in that industry who never forgot which country made it all possible in the first place.
