What The Hell Are “Hollywood Ambassadors”

Trying to make sense of the senseless

On January 16, 2025, newly re-elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, posted to Truth Social that he had named his “Ambassadors to Hollywood.” He went on to say that “they will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK— BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” A position that is normally given to career politicians was given away to three highly conservative celebrities. Except, there’s no such thing as an Ambassador to Hollywood. Ambassadors aren’t needed in their home country, so this has left many scratching their heads in confusion.

“It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California” President Trump posted to his Truth Social account (a social media site that he owns). While Gibson has been an outspoken conservative, he’s also no stranger to controversies, having struggled with alcoholism and antisemitism for years. While he did not endorse or vote for Donald Trump in 2016, he did openly endorse him in 2024. Similarly, Sylvester Stallone didn’t endorse Trump in 2016, although he was offered the Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, which he declined. However in 2024, Stallone called Trump the “second George Washington,” and endorsed him for President. Of the three men, Jon Voight has been the only one to openly endorse President Trump since his first administration. Voight has become very conservative over the years, comparing liberals to Satan when perpetuating the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and has even gone so far as speaking out against his own daughter, Angelina Jolie. He openly called Trump “the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln” (name any other President) and endorsed him for the 2016 and 2024 elections. Trump said that the three would be his "eyes and ears" in Hollywood, and that he “will get done what they suggest,” but their duties were not specified.

Ambassadors of the United States are nominated by the president to serve as the United States' diplomatic representatives to foreign nations. But while they are nominated by the president, the United States Senate has to confirm them, according to the Constitution. Once confirmed, Ambassadors become the highest-ranking diplomats of the U.S. and are usually based at the embassy in the host country. This allows them to work with visiting US citizens, or in some cases, help fleeing citizens escape. But mostly they work directly with the host country's government. They are under the jurisdiction of the Department of State and answer directly to the secretary of state. However, ambassadors serve “at the pleasure of the President,” which means they can be “dismissed” at any time. How any of this applies to Hollywood is anyone's guess at this point.

For years now California, and more specifically, Los Angeles has been a conservative punching bag. The current President called it a “failed state” in the midst of devastating destruction from the LA wildfires. A few years ago conservative media began targeting Hollywood in specific ways. As nerd culture grew with the rise of the MCU and the blockbuster films they inspired, a very loud and vocal minority sprung up on the Internet. This group, much like the current President’s mantra of “Make America Great Again,” which pretends there was a time when things were better in America, declares there is a “woke agenda” stemming from the same hateful rhetoric. These outrage merchants follow the formula in which Trump makes scapegoats of minorities for his MAGA propaganda by being sexist and racist due to their dissatisfaction that they woke up one morning and realized they were the villains in the stories they pretended to love. You only have to look at Donald Trump's 2016 message about the Ghostbusters remake to see the proof. Do people like Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, or Ben Shapiro (co-founder of the right wing news agency The Daily Wire) actually care about Marvel, Ghostbusters, or Star Trek? No! They care about making people angry at a fictional Boogeyman so those same people ignore what's really happening to them.

“The major fear with these new ambassadors to Hollywood is that they will begin to crack down on this fake ‘woke agenda’”

So what does all this have to do with “Hollywood Ambassadors?” Supposedly the goal of these three men will be to create a new “golden age of Hollywood.” They will serve as special envoys to the president with the goal of bringing business back to Hollywood. Trump claims in his Truth Social post announcement that Hollywood has lost “much business” over the last 4 years and that these three men will advise Trump on how to bring it back. In fairness to the Commander-in-Chief, Hollywood has lost a lot of business over the years. It's weird that he focused on the last four years considering there was a pandemic and this has been happening for a lot longer. It's expensive to shoot in LA and places like Atlanta and Vancouver offer better tax incentives. The ways to fix this are antithetical to the values that these people hold.

The major fear with these new ambassadors to Hollywood is that they will begin to crack down on this fake “woke agenda”. Sanitization of art and media is part of the conservative playbook. Everytime a black person shows up in a movie or a woman kisses another woman, you’ll see hundreds of angry YouTube videos about how studios are pushing “woke politics.” Who can forget the raving lunatic on YouTube yelling about “fucking California shit”, what ever that means, because a video game asked him what his characters pronouns were. Conservative pundits have been trying to get “Hollywood” to remove this amorphous fake agenda and Trump may have supplied the perfect people to do just that. Project 2025, Trump's roadmap for the next four years, also wants to make pornography illegal. Conservatives feel that the very nature of LGBTQIA love is “pornographic” so will they crack down on that? Disney has already removed two transgendered characters from two different shows, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Win or Lose, which will just be the beginning of a much larger purge as the bigger studios cut back on diverse characters and stories. Especially with many studio heads backing Trump and the others being scared not to.

While Trump may demand everyone call these people “Mr. Ambassador,” this doesn't seem like a real position. At least not yet. While the President can appoint ambassadors, the Senate has to confirm them. The best that anyone can tell is that this is symbolic. These actors didn't even know about this appointment until President Trump posted about it. Mel Gibson told USA Today "I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised. Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can.” Much like every person Trump appoints to his cabinet, the only qualifications these men have, besides being actors, are their loyalty to Trump.

There are already numerous plans in place to bring business back to Hollywood that Trump will, no doubt, take credit for if they work. On October 27, 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a “proposal to expand California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program to $750 million annually.” Before this expansion the program was $330 million which wasn’t enough as more productions were applying then could be accommodated. The Governors own website for this proposal suggests that 71% of the productions that applied, went to other states, which lost California some much needed revenue. Newsom said about the expansion “California is the entertainment capital of the world, rooted in decades of creativity, innovation, and unparalleled talent. Expanding this program will help keep production here at home, generate thousands of good-paying jobs, and strengthen the vital link between our communities and the state’s iconic film and TV industry.”

Another important plan to look out for is a 1.2 billion dollar plan to overhaul the historic Television City. In 2021, Hackman announced plans for a major, $1.25 billion redevelopment of the facility, which will expand Television City to at least 15 soundstages, and add additional office space. On January 8, 2025, The Los Angeles City Council approved the $1.2 billion Television City project. A councilmember who represents the area, Katy Yaroslavsky, emphasized how beneficial this development will be to the future of the local entertainment industry by saying “This project represents an opportunity, a real opportunity, to keep Los Angeles as the entertainment capital of the world. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by. The stakes are simply too high.” It may be a tough climb, but officials in California are already making moves to bring the film industry back to Los Angeles. But, as stated above, Trump doesn’t actually care about the film industry. He and other conservatives are merely working an agenda that will rile up their base.

One hurdle these rebuilding plans will face is the devastating LA wildfires. 2025 is off to a difficult start as LA communities were decimated by disastrous fires, the likes of which haven’t been seen in years. LA was already an expensive town for below the line workers and many of them have lost their homes and will likely move away from the city. Especially since work hasn’t picked up since the various strikes subsided. What’s more, with more productions moving out of LA, the above the line celebrities (rich or not) who have lost their homes will likely move away from the city. From COVID to the Strikes to the fires, it’s become the perfect storm of devastation for the industry and studios will be looking for any reason to cut costs wherever possible. LA, as a city, will need to be rebuilt as well as Hollywood as an industry.

Trump is putting a lot of work into California this time around. He hates Governor Newsom and is taking the wildfires as an opportunity to turn the people of California against him. Which is probably why he appointed these fake ambassadors. He, and members of his cabinet have echoed online rage grifters that Hollywood is being destroyed by the “woke agenda,” so he hired a racist, a sexist, and whatever Stallone’s problem is, to stop it. Because “ambassadors” are what is going to save Hollywood, not a better tax incentive. If the numerous rebuilding plans work, he’ll take the credit and use the political leverage to drive Newsom out in the hopes of making the Californian people vote for a more subservient and loyal Governor.

“Through seeing diverse art we learn things about ourselves and each other.”

This may sound like the least of our troubles, but these kinds of things are important to pay attention to right now, especially because this is another attack on our art. Art is important. It's how we learn to identify our place in the world. Through seeing diverse art we learn things about ourselves and each other. We grow more tolerant of our differences when we learn that they aren't as vast as our leaders tell us they are. Art helps us grow beyond the mistakes of the past. Human beings are the only species on the planet that make art the way that we do. It's intrinsically human. It's why the fight against generative AI is so important. If they take away our art or automate it to cut costs to get rid of some fake boogeyman called the “woke agenda” then they take away who we are as human beings. So unless they’re officially appointed by the senate, no one has to call those men “Mr. Ambassador” and we can keep fighting for our art.