Gavin Newsom wants to work with Trump to create $7.5 billion federal tax credit for Hollywood

After President Donald Trump announced his plan to implement tariffs on films made overseas, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he wanted to team up with Trump—the same guy he and his legislature created a $50 million legal slush fund to fight—to craft a $7.5 billion federal film tax credit to encourage US production.

"California built the film industry — and we’re ready to bring even more jobs home," Newsom said in a post. "We’ve proven what strong state incentives can do. Now it’s time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again. @POTUS, let’s get it done."

"America continues to be a film powerhouse, and California is all in to bring more production here," said Newsom to The New York Times. "Building on our successful state program, we’re eager to partner with the Trump administration to further strengthen domestic production and Make America Film Again."

Many states have programs like this to encourage Hollywood to shoot in their states, but right now there's nothing at the federal level. In recent decades, much of film and television production has moved out of California and into other states and countries that offer better incentives for production. Lots of television is produced in Canada in part due to tax credits and rebates from provinces and the federal government. 

"The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death," Trump said in his post announcing the tariff plan. "Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the USA, are being devastated." 

It wasn't immediately clear just what would be covered by the tariff, whether it would be for films that had any part of their production overseas or just those that had tax incentives from other nations to shoot there. Trump said that he was "authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!"

On Monday, White House spokesman Kush Desai said that "no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made," though "the administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump's directive."

Trump said that his tariff idea for foreign films was meant to help the industry. "I'm not looking to hurt the industry," he said, "I want to help the industry."