Jon Voight and Steven Paul Meet with President Trump to Advance an American Federal Incentive for Film and TV

Jon Voight, Steven Paul, and Scott Karol met with President Trump to discuss federal production tax incentive to restore U.S. filmmaking.

Discussions in Washington focus on federal production tax incentive to restore U.S. filmmaking competitiveness

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, May 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Hollywood Ambassador and Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight joined SP Media Group’s CEO Steven Paul and its president Scott Karol in Washington for a series of meetings with President Donald Trump and congressional leaders regarding a comprehensive initiative to strengthen domestic film and television production through federal tax incentives.

Voight, Paul, and Karol met directly with President Trump to present their broader production incentive framework, which includes federal tax credits, infrastructure support, workforce development initiatives, and additional measures designed to incentivize domestic film and television production.

“Foreign countries have gained a competitive advantage through aggressive tax policies, and America needs to get back in the game. This is a policy that puts Americans to work here at home and helps bring runaway productions back to the United States,” said Paul. “The President loves the entertainment business and wants to see it healthy, and was supportive of our plan. We were also encouraged to see Republican and Democratic lawmakers working together toward solutions that can have a meaningful impact on the American people and the future of our industry.”

Before they met with President Trump, Voight, Paul, and Karol met with Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin. The MPA’s Joshua Rogin and Hap Rigby then took the Hollywood Ambassador and his team to Capitol Hill, where the group held meetings with Jason Smith, head of the House Ways and Means Committee, and then onto meetings with Congresspeople Brian Jack, Laura Friedman and Nicole Malliotakis for conversations focused on restoring American production competitiveness.

The meetings build upon ongoing advocacy efforts led by Voight, Paul, and Karol to combat runaway production and restore the United States as a leading destination for film and television production. The coalition supporting the initiative 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.

“Strengthening federal production incentives would be a game changer for the United States and help bring runaway productions back to America,” said Karol. “The people hurt most are the crew members, carpenters, drivers, and countless others whose livelihoods depend on production staying here. When productions remain in the U.S., that money flows directly back into local communities and supports millions of American workers.”

Voight, Paul, and Karol have also met with political commentator and California gubernatorial candidate and current front-runner Steve Hilton to discuss proposals aimed at expanding California’s state entertainment tax credit program, including increasing the program cap and streamlining qualification requirements for productions filming in Los Angeles, as well as Hilton’s support for the federal incentives. Industry leaders noted that pairing enhanced state incentives with a federal production tax credit could significantly strengthen Hollywood’s competitiveness and help attract more film and television production back to the United States.

About Steven Paul

Steven Paul is a leading independent film producer and Chairman/CEO of SP MEDIA GROUP [SPMG] based on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, CA. SPMG maintains a co-financing agreement with Paramount Pictures to co-produce feature films and has financed and produced over thirty motion pictures in the past five years. Paul, who has a substantial real estate portfolio, including the Samuel Goldwyn building in Century City and a boutique art deco hotel in Miami (Casa Marela), recently acquired the Atlas Comics library, founded by Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman. Atlas Comics relaunched at New York Comic Con in partnership with Walmart, while also celebrating its 50th anniversary. Paul is also the owner of leading independent distributor Echo Bridge, and majority owner and Chairman of JLTV – the largest Jewish network in the world, available in more than 65m households in North America. Paul has a library of more than 3,000 films through its affiliated companies and supplies content to leading AVOD platforms like Pluto TV and more, and owns Avenue Six Studios in California and HANKS Café which he built in honor of his late father.

Kevin Pryor
Rubenstein Public Relations
+1 212-805-3057
kpryorrubensteinpr@gmail.com

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