Donald Trump & friends have a welcome plot twist for Hollywood

Donald Trump brought the lights and camera.

Will Congress supply the action?

The Trump administration on Monday called for federal legislators to make Hollywood great again –– by passing national tax credits for film and TV production in the United States.

Tax incentives are an imperfect, incomplete answer to Tinseltown’s travails.

But they’re the way the story has to go. US legislators should sign on to Trump’s plan.

Ironic, isn’t it, that Trump would play a starring role in reviving an industry whose denizens mostly revile him?

But it just goes to show how fundamental show biz is to the health, success and creative vitality of California –– and the nation.

Tax credits to select industries are generally not ideal as policy; government, as a rule, should not pick winners and losers. But in this case they’re the better option: a key tool toward part of what ought to be a larger effort to revitalize Tinseltown.

Hollywood’s under duress for a range of reasons, including industry labor strife; lower production costs abroad; better tax credits in other states; and years of woke content, changing viewer habits and the growth of AI.

But it’s not scene over.

Instead, it’s time for reinvention.

The storied hub of glitz, glamor and (some) great stories can rebound. 

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The federal tax relief can help –– and we credit Trump and his allies, including former LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt and actor and Hollywood ambassador Jon Voigt, for bringing them closer to screen. 

Heck, even California Sen. Adam Schiff backs the proposed production incentives. When’s the last time we saw Trump and Schiff agree on something? 

They have the right idea. 

Hollywood’s health is key to the broader story. The entertainment biz supports more than 325,000 jobs in the Los Angeles region –– and generates an estimated tens of billions of dollars a year for LA County’s economy.

The region is also a creative engine for California –– and the state and nation need the innovation that sectors like Hollywood and Silicon Valley deliver.

But, as we have noted, California needs more than federal support.

It needs a culture change.

The state and its regions need to curb regulations, restrain taxes, support business, quash crime and deal far more seriously with homelessness –– moves that would help all state industry flourish.

And Hollywood itself, and its unions, need to be realistic about what audiences want and what the industry can sustain in a world of AI, streaming, YouTube and more.

The lights and camera are set. 

Now comes the hard part: the action. Let’s get cracking.