Trump names Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’ | Film

Donald Trump has tapped three of his longtime celebrity supporters – Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone – to reportedly make Hollywood “stronger than ever” as “special ambassadors” for the movie capital.

The president-elect announced the new appointments, whose duties are still unclear, at the Truth Social on Thursday, four days before his inauguration. “It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone as special ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” he wrote.

“They will serve as special emissaries for me with the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost a lot of business in the last four years to foreign countries, BACK – BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE! These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will have what they suggest done. It will again be, like America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”

Trump has long spurned Hollywood, which saw celebrities overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. He made the announcement as wildfires continue to ravage Southern California and significantly disrupt the film and television industries. Many in Hollywood have lost their homes in the fires, which have killed 25 people, displaced tens of thousands and crippled businesses, with costs estimated at over $250 billion.

His post appears to refer to the declining US box office, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic and the dual writer/actor strikes in 2023. Last year’s haul of $8.7bn. The USD fell 3.3% from 2023 and 23.5% from 2019, the last full year before the Covid pandemic.

Like the president-elect, the three new “special ambassadors” are no strangers to controversy. Gibson, a huge star in the 1980s and ’90s, has never reached the same heights after he was caught making racist and anti-Semitic remarks during a DUI arrest in 2006. Voight, arguably Trump’s most outspoken supporter in Hollywood — and awarded a National Medal of the Arts by Trump in 2019 – described his estranged daughter Angelina Jolie’s support for Gaza refugees as a result of “propaganda” by “anti-Semitic people”.

Stallone, meanwhile, endorsed Trump on the 2024 campaign trail, calling the Republican nominee “another George Washington.”

“We are in the presence of a truly mythical character,” he said at the America First Policy Gala in Palm Beach, Florida, in November. “Nobody in the world could have achieved what he achieved, so I’m in awe.”

It is unclear whether the Hollywood trio will attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday in Washington DC. The ceremony will feature former American Idol champion and country music star Carrie Underwood singing America the Beautiful. Other performers include country singer Jason Aldean and longtime Trump supporter Kid Rock.