Hollywood insiders say Trump’s return has a chilling effect on film industry

LA Times business reporter Samantha Masunaga reported President Donald Trump’s return to power sparked a grim paradigm shift in Hollywood.

In a piece headlined, “Will Trump have a chilling effect on Hollywood? Insiders say it’s already happening,” Masunaga wrote that two films indicate how the times have changed. The writer contrasted the recent documentary about first lady Melania Trump, which she produced, with a critical biopic of Trump, “The Apprentice.” The documentary will be released by Amazon Prime Video, while “The Apprentice” reportedly has struggled to get a distribution deal.

“The contrasting fates show the more muted mood in liberal Hollywood,” The LA Times writer argued. “There is a general sense of unease among industry insiders about what’s to come, the speed with which Trump has enacted sweeping executive orders across the federal government — and the seeming buy-in from corporate leaders — and how that all could influence future creative content.”

One reason for why “The Apprentice” may have struggled to find a distributor is because the Trump campaign threatened a lawsuit in 2024 over “blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”

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“There was definitely reticence about getting involved with the movie after our Cannes premiere,” Amy Baer, one of the film’s producers, told the LA Times. “Enough to cool any potential interest we had.”

She added that while some distributors immediately refused, others have “politely stepped away.”

While the film was eventually picked up by Briarcliff Entertainment, the film had only a few weeks to arrange its theatrical release and ad campaign before the 2024 election. 

Masunaga recalled both how Amazon reportedly paid $40 million to license Melania Trump’s documentary, and that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos refused to have the Washington Post endorse a candidate in the 2024 election. 

“Observers saw the two actions as linked, an attempt to curry favor with the new administration, and one very much at odds with how the entertainment industry mounted a public resistance against the first Trump presidency,” Masunaga suggested.

Tom Nunan, the co-head of the graduate producers program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, told the LA-based news outlet that Hollywood is still reeling from Trump’s return to power.

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“I don’t think that people have really figured out what to do yet, how to express themselves or what’s going to be the most effective,” he said. “It’s hard to be creative when you’re afraid.”

Nunan argued further that Trump has been a “tipping point” or “force multiplier” for particularly liberal people in the industry who were already struggling with Hollywood’s current slowdown in production.

“Just kind of a feeling of defeat has pervaded this place,” he told the LA Times. “And it’s really unfortunate.”

Steve Caplan, principal strategist at Los Angeles-based communications firm Message, argued that recent fires in LA have soured the mood in Hollywood as well.

“Right now with crisis and the fires, there’s a little bit of fatigue and certainly a little bit of shell shock from the speed with which the Trump administration has rolled out some of their proposals,” he told the local news outlet. “But people will be taking stock as the midterms and the governor’s race grow nearer.”

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Nonetheless, the entertainment industry right now is navigating a “difficult environment,” he said.

“If you look at the direction things are going, and the strategic decisions that are being made by brands of all kinds, companies of all types, it would indicate it’s a very difficult environment to get these things done,” he told the LA Times. “We will see if creative and content is part of that, but early indications are that it will be a challenge.”