Jon Voight and Steven Paul press Trump for federal film tax incentive

By AI, Created 7:15 PM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – Jon Voight, SP Media Group CEO Steven Paul and president Scott Karol met with President Donald Trump and congressional leaders in Washington to push a federal incentive package for film and TV production. The effort is aimed at making U.S. production more competitive and bringing more projects back from overseas.

Why it matters: - A federal production incentive could help make the United States more competitive with countries that use aggressive tax policies to lure film and television work. - Supporters say the policy could keep more jobs, spending and production activity in U.S. communities instead of sending projects overseas.

What happened: - Jon Voight, Steven Paul and Scott Karol met with President Donald Trump in Washington to present a broad production incentive framework. - The framework includes federal tax credits, infrastructure support, workforce development initiatives and other measures intended to encourage domestic film and television production. - The group also met with congressional leaders, including Jason Smith, who leads the House Ways and Means Committee. - Other Capitol Hill meetings included Rep. Brian Jack, Rep. Laura Friedman and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis. - The meetings followed an earlier stop with Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin.

The details: - Paul said foreign countries have gained a competitive advantage through aggressive tax policies, and he argued the U.S. needs to regain ground. - Paul said the plan is designed to put Americans to work at home and bring runaway productions back to the United States. - Paul also said President Trump was supportive of the plan and that lawmakers from both parties appeared open to solutions. - Karol said stronger federal incentives would be a “game changer” and argued that crew members, carpenters, drivers and other workers are most affected when productions leave the country. - Karol said production spending that stays in the U.S. flows into local communities and supports millions of American workers. - The coalition backing the effort includes the Motion Picture Association, SAG-AFTRA, Teamsters, the Writers Guild of America East and West, the Directors Guild of America, the Independent Film & Television Alliance, Producers United, IATSE, the Coalition of American Producers, Film USA and the Producers Guild of America. - Voight, Paul and Karol also met with Steve Hilton, a political commentator and California gubernatorial candidate, to discuss expanding California’s state entertainment tax credit program. - Those California discussions included raising the program cap, streamlining qualification requirements for productions filming in Los Angeles and exploring support for federal incentives.

Between the lines: - The push reflects a broader industry effort to pair state-level film incentives with a federal tax credit to keep production in the U.S. - The coalition’s size suggests the proposal is trying to unify studios, labor groups and trade organizations behind a single competitiveness agenda. - The focus on California shows the debate is not only national. It is also about whether Hollywood can retain production against cheaper locations abroad and in other states.

What’s next: - Backers are continuing advocacy in Washington and California as they look for support for federal incentives and possible changes to the state credit. - Industry leaders expect that combining stronger state and federal incentives could help attract more film and television production back to the United States.

The bottom line: - The proposal is a direct attempt to use tax policy to pull more screen production back to America and protect the jobs tied to it.