'My eyes and ears': Trump names ambassadors to Hollywood, c​ritics question motives

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
David Badash
January 17, 2025Trump

Donald Trump has announced about 100 nominations to his administration that require Senate confirmation, from cabinet secretaries to ambassadors to foreign countries, but on Thursday the President-elect announced the “nomination” of three more “ambassadors” — to Hollywood.

“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,” Trump declared on social media. “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! These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”

Calling it a “seemingly unprecedented role,” Politico reports, “Voight, Gibson and Stallone have been vocal supporters of Trump in recent years.”

The three will not require Senate confirmation, as there is no official role of Ambassador to Hollywood.

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“Trump has long had deep ties within the entertainment industry. His pick for envoy to the United Kingdom is his old producer from ‘The Apprentice,’ Mark Burnett.”

The Chicago Tribune noted that “Trump’s decision to select the actors as his chosen ‘ambassadors’ underscores his preoccupations with the 80s and 90s, when he was a rising tabloid star in New York, and Gibson and Stallone were among the biggest movie stars in the world.”

“Stallone is a frequent guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and introduced him at a gala in November shortly after the election,” the Tribune reported. But the paper noted, the “decision also reflects Trump’s willingness to overlook his supporters’ most controversial statements.”

“Gibson’s reputation has been altered in Hollywood since 2006, he went on an antisemitic rant while being arrested for allegedly driving under the influence. But he’s also continued to work in mainstream movies and directed the upcoming Wahlberg thriller ‘Flight Risk.'”

“Voight is a longtime Trump supporter who has called Trump the greatest president since Lincoln,” the Tribune added.

But while some mocked the very idea of “ambassadors” to Hollywood, some political observers see a different motivations.

“If you’re to believe Trump, a task force comprised of three men with an average age of 77 is precisely what Hollywood needs to reclaim its glory days,” reported Vanity Fair‘s Chris Murphy.

“There is no reason to think that Trump genuinely wants to help the U.S. film industry, which has rejected and mocked him since he entered politics,” writes New York Magazine “Intelligencer” senior editor Margaret Hartmann, who described the appointments as “trolling Hollywood.”

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She also notes that “there’s the underlying idea that Trump needs to appoint ambassadors to Hollywood, like it’s not part of the United States. He underscores this by calling it a ‘great but very troubled place.’ Referring to Hollywood as a location, not just an industry, and describing it as ‘troubled’ make it impossible not to think of the wildfires.”

Hartmann also says, “it’s not clear what it means to be Trump’s ‘eyes and ears’ in the film industry, unless he’s trying to conjure fears about another Red Scare.”

Others have made suggestions about American culture.

“It means that just like in the Third Reich with the Nazis, MAGA is hyperfocused on gaining control of culture. You can’t control people unless you control culture. Like I said, Hollywood is about to FO [find out],” declared political analyst Rachel Bitecofer.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported, “while some have welcomed the picks,” of Stallone, Voight, and Gibson, “others, such as departing President Joe Biden have warned of an emerging ‘oligarchy’ in the US.”

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