President Trump's plan to bring Hollywood production back to the United States has drawn open support from some of his sharpest Democratic critics, including Nancy Pelosi, Ilhan Omar, and Adam Schiff.
Schiff, the California senator who spent years accusing Trump of colluding with Moscow, tweeted this week that he is "in strong agreement with the president" on a federal tax incentive for film and television production. He called on Congress to pass the measure immediately, saying the country has hemorrhaged good-paying entertainment jobs to foreign competitors.
The alignment is striking. Schiff built his national profile as Trump's most persistent antagonist, the man Trump once dismissed as "pencil-neck." Now the senator from the state that invented the movie business wants to work with the White House to reverse a production exodus that has sent nearly half of all American films and scripted shows overseas.
The numbers behind the push are blunt. Schiff revealed that 45% of all U.S. films and scripted television shows were shot in other countries in 2025, a 12-percentage-point spike from 33% in 2022. More than 42,000 jobs have been lost.
Schiff put the blame squarely on the absence of a federal incentive structure, arguing that state-level programs alone cannot compete with what foreign governments offer.
"State programs cannot simply substitute for the kind of global, federal and competitive tax incentives that are needed to bring production back to American soil and stop its offshoring."
Mel Gibson, one of three actors Trump appointed as special envoys to Hollywood, made the same point in starker terms during a prior Fox Business interview. Gibson said that for a recent film, it was cheaper to fly his entire crew to Europe for three days than to shoot for a single day in Los Angeles. "There's something really wrong there," he said.
Gibson added that former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had tried to fix the cost problem while in office but ran into "obstacles", a vague reference that suggests the dysfunction is older and deeper than any single administration.
Pelosi, speaking to Fox News Digital on the Capitol grounds, could not resist framing the moment as vindication for her side.
"We've been promoting that for a long time. I'm glad he finally arrived at it."
The comment is classic Pelosi, claiming credit while backing a Trump initiative. But the substance matters more than the spin. If Democrats who represent Hollywood's home turf are willing to sign on, the proposal has a clearer path than most bipartisan efforts in a divided Congress.
Schiff, who previously represented the studio-heavy Burbank area as a House member, issued a broader call for cooperation. He urged Republicans and Democrats to "work together... get this done and bring the movie magic back to America." His full statement called for Congress to "immediately take up and pass a federal film tax incentive to bring back these good-paying jobs that we've lost to other countries."
That kind of language from a senator who has built his brand on opposing Trump at every turn is worth noting. Schiff is not simply tolerating the president's position. He is endorsing it publicly and pressing his own colleagues to act.
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota offered a different kind of endorsement, one rooted in her own state's experience with production incentives. Omar told Fox News Digital that she supported film subsidies when she served in the Minnesota state legislature and saw the results firsthand.
"When I was in the Minnesota House, I was very supportive of Minnesota having subsidies so we can have more movies being made inside Minnesota like the movie 'Fargo.'"
Omar pointed to the 1996 Coen Brothers film starring William H. Macy and the "Mighty Ducks" franchise, which filmed heavily in the Twin Cities during its 1990s run with actors including Emilio Estevez and Joshua Jackson, as evidence that state incentives can attract major productions. When Minnesota ended those subsidies, Omar said, it "made it less fun trying to run into people who were actually doing the production."
She described the federal plan as a potential win for states beyond California. "It could be a really cool thing [and] also bring us money to states that can use it," Omar said.
Omar's support is notable for different reasons than Schiff's. She has been one of the most progressive voices in the House and one of Trump's most vocal critics. Her willingness to back a Trump initiative on the merits suggests the politics of film production cut across ideological lines in ways that most issues do not. It follows a broader pattern of fractures within the Democratic coalition, where individual members increasingly break from the party's reflexive opposition to anything bearing Trump's name.
Behind the scenes, the bipartisan front did not assemble itself. Jon Voight, the veteran actor Trump appointed as a special ambassador to Hollywood in 2025, served as a key mediator between the White House and congressional Democrats. The Washington Examiner reported that Voight helped connect the administration with lawmakers including Rep. Laura Friedman of California, who is working with Schiff to build support for the legislation.
The emerging bill would provide a 20% federal tax credit for film and television productions, layered on top of existing state incentives. Friedman and Schiff have signaled the legislation could be filed as soon as September.
Trump also appointed Gibson and Sylvester Stallone as special envoys to Hollywood, though the specific duties of those roles remain undefined in any public document. The appointments signaled the president's seriousness about the issue, and gave the effort star power that a typical policy rollout lacks.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has similarly crossed the aisle to back Trump on data center development, arguing that reflexive opposition to the president's economic proposals hands advantages to foreign competitors. The film incentive push fits the same mold: a concrete economic question where the politics of resistance run headlong into the reality of lost jobs.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has also positioned himself as a willing partner. Newsmax reported that Newsom proposed a $7.5 billion federal film tax credit tied to Trump's proposed 100% tariff on foreign-made films, a figure that would represent the largest government aid package ever directed at the entertainment industry and the first federal assistance of its kind.
Newsom said California "built the film industry" and called for "a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again", borrowing Trump's signature phrasing in a way that would have been unthinkable from the governor just a few years ago.
The cooperation is especially striking given that California simultaneously sued the Trump administration over tariffs earlier this year. Newsom appears to be drawing sharp lines between trade disputes and an industry his state cannot afford to lose.
Schiff has a history of making claims that do not hold up under scrutiny, and Pelosi's framing of the issue as something Democrats championed first is debatable at best. But none of that changes the underlying math. American productions are leaving the country at an accelerating rate. Forty-two thousand jobs have already vanished. And the only proposal on the table with any momentum belongs to Trump.
For all the bipartisan goodwill, the effort still lacks a concrete legislative vehicle. No bill text has been released. No committee hearing has been scheduled. Schiff and Friedman have talked about filing legislation in September, but talking about filing and actually voting are two very different things in Washington.
Open questions remain. What productions would qualify for the 20% credit? Would it apply to streaming content or only theatrical releases? How would it interact with the patchwork of state-level incentive programs already in place? And can a Congress that struggles to pass routine spending bills move fast enough to matter?
Democrats like Fetterman have warned that delay on economic competitiveness issues only benefits foreign rivals. The same logic applies here. Every month without a federal incentive is another month where producers compare the cost of shooting in Los Angeles against the cost of a plane ticket to Prague, and choose the ticket.
When Pelosi, Omar, and Schiff all line up behind a Trump initiative, the question is not whether the policy makes sense. It is whether Washington can stop admiring the rare moment of agreement long enough to actually pass something.