Trump names Gibson, Stallone and Voight as Hollywood ambassadors

US President Donald Trump has appointed three movie stars as special ambassadors tasked with promoting business opportunities in Hollywood.

“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“They will serve as special envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost a lot of business over the past four years to foreign countries, BACK – BIGGER, BETTER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”

All three celebrities have recently been linked to Trump and his campaign. It is unclear what their roles will entail.

In a statement, Gibson, 69, said he received the news “at the same time as all of you and was equally surprised.

“Still, I listen to the call. My duty as a citizen is to give and help and insight that I can.”

Gibson, who recently lost his home in the Los Angeles wildfires, added: “Is there a chance that the post will come with an ambassador’s residence?”

The Braveheart and Mad Max star had publicly endorsed Trump in a video released shortly before the November election. He also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, who was Trump’s Democratic rival in the presidential election.

Stallone, 78, best known for playing the titular character in the Rocky franchise, introduced Trump at Mar-a-Lago for his post-election victory speech.

He compared the president-elect to America’s first leader, calling him “the second George Washington.”

“Without him, can you imagine what the world would be like?” he said.

He added that Washington – who was president from 1789 to 1797 – did not realize he would change the world when he defended his country.

Voight, 86, who starred in Midnight Cowboy and Pearl Harbor, is a longtime supporter of Trump and has called him the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.

It’s been a tough few years for Hollywood with the Covid pandemic, multiple labor strikes and competition from streaming services.

Lucas Shaw, a longtime Hollywood analyst, doesn’t believe the new emissaries can do much to help the struggling industry.

“He (Trump) sees them as allies and he can use them to talk about change in Hollywood, but I don’t imagine you’re going to get John Voight and Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson trying to figure out , how to restore cable bundles, or make streaming more profitable, or figure out how to get China to import more Hollywood movies,” he said.

Trump’s relationship with Hollywood has been fraught with tension and controversy.

The entertainment industry was partly responsible for bringing Trump back to prominence with his reality show, The Apprentice, as it bolstered his image as a savvy businessman, Mr. Shaw for the BBC.

Trump’s ascension to the White House changed the dynamic and put him at odds with the politics of much of the industry.

“Hollywood tends to donate to and support Democrats more than Republicans, so it serves as an effective industry for him to criticize,” Mr. Shaw.

It’s also easy to “portray as these rich fat cats who don’t have your best interests in mind”.

In August 2019, during his first term, Trump criticized the film industry as “racist” and accused it of creating “very dangerous” films.

His comments stemmed from controversy ahead of the release of the film The Hunt, an action-horror about a group of elites who hunt people for sport.

Speaking outside the White House, he said Hollywood was doing a “tremendous disservice to the country” by producing content that incites violence and division.

The following year, Trump took aim at the Academy Awards for selecting the South Korean film Parasite as best picture.

He questioned how a foreign film could win the top honor and suggested it was undeserved.

Trump’s stances on immigration, climate change and social justice have drawn sharp criticism from major celebrities, and he has faced the ire of stars such as Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.

Some of his policies have also targeted Hollywood, including a push to end tax breaks for film production in certain states.

The announcement of his special ambassadors for Hollywood comes just four days before his inauguration in Washington DC on January 20th.

Los Angeles – the heart of the entertainment industry – is currently struggling to contain deadly wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and buildings and left many businesses scrambling to recover.

Damages are estimated at approximately $250 billion (£204 billion).