Hollywood’s Tax Credit Push Gets Trump Post as Flights Stop
As a rare nationwide ground stop delayed more than 10,000 US flights on Friday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social urging Congress to pass a federal film and television tax incentive. He named a bipartisan list of lawmakers backing the bill.
President Donald Trump used Truth Social on Friday, November 13, to press for a federal film and television tax incentive, as flights across the United States stopped during a rare nationwide ground stop. It was the latest turn in Hollywood’s tax credit push, and it came while the White House was silent on the outage.
The ground stop had delayed more than 10,000 flights at the time of the report. Trump had not yet issued a statement on it.
Homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin did speak to the public after the stop was called. “This isn’t another 9/11. This is a telecommunication outage,” he said.
What Trump posted
Trump’s post may have been a response to a Friday article saying the incentive effort had hit a wall after the midterm elections. He wrote that “meetings are being set up to GET THIS DONE.”
The bill is the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act. Trump said he is working on it with Senator Tim Scott and, in his words, “believe it or not, Senator Adam Schiff.”
He also named Senators John Cornyn, Raphael Warnock, Steve Daines, Bernie Moreno, Tim Sheehy, Alex Padilla, Mark Warner, Thom Tillis, Chris Coons, Katie Britt and Dick Durbin. House members on his list were Jason Smith, Nathaniel Moran, Brian Jack and Linda Sanchez, plus “many others, both Republican and Democrat.”
The case Trump made
Trump argued that other countries’ incentives have drawn production away. “The Entertainment Industry has largely moved to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries, but the actors, producers, and all others involved want to come back home!” he wrote.
He said “hundreds of thousands of Blue Collar Workers” would benefit. He also claimed the money spent on the incentives “will be made up tenfold by the money pouring into the Treasury’s coffers.” He offered no figures to support that.
Trump framed the bill as bipartisan, noting that much of the money going to other countries is “coming out of the Blue States.” He wrote that he hopes Republicans and Democrats “will get together and finalize this already very actively negotiated Legislation.”
He closed the post with a slogan: “MAKE OUR ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY GREAT AGAIN!”
The post does not set a date for a vote or say when the promised meetings with party leaders will take place.
