Maga has always been about manufacturing. Donald Trump talked about bringing production lines back to the Midwest because many economically erratic voters whose messages are most open to his are factory workers who have layoffs in industrial towns of old production lines.
But last week, the president began talking about tariffs not on steel, but on films made in foreign countries. Now, he wants to "make Hollywood great again" by pushing the company to make more movies in the United States.
At first glance, the idea that the film business needs protection seems clumsy. The United States is the highest exporter of movies. Most of Hollywood's revenue comes from overseas audiences, who occupy American action movies, thrillers and animated blockbusters. Movies are an important part of the American soft power. Given all this, tariff protections in Hollywood have prompted suspicion of the common disdain of liberals (and many conservatives) who believe that most of what the president does are nuts.
They were wrong. Like many Trump’s ideas, this idea may be flawed economically, but is politically wise. Hollywood is a big league town near Orange County, a hotbed for Maga. Just as Pennsylvania steel workers and Indiana mechanics are in a more volatile position by the Chinese shock, Tinseltown is not only anxious about cheap foreign competition, not only cheap foreign competition, which has been working for production for years, but also artificial intelligence for people like artificial residence technology, such as artificial intelligence, will essentially change the business model of the industry as a whole.
To capitalize on this, Trump offers his usual prescription: You are anxious about the future, and I will give you a solution that may not work economically (retaliation tariffs do not cause little pain overseas when damaging Los Angeles), but will make you feel politically cared for. He mastered the truth in a real liar style: for new “prect” service workers, content, media and coding are zero, and they fear that their future opportunities are far less prosperous than they did in the past.
These are the people who are most likely to be seduced by hard rights. As one academic study shows, while thorough poverty may reduce support for far-right populism, middle-class voters who fear future will often be attracted to it, as well as a false promise of better opportunities. In the United States and many European countries, this "shrink and shouting" prec province is biased to the far right.
Trump isn't the only one talking about job in Hollywood. California Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a bigger tax credit for the industry in an attempt to bring work to middle-class labor in the film business — camera operators, electricians, makeup artists, makeup artists and others displaced by foreign counterparts, as production has moved to places where labor is cheaper and audiences are larger.
But these jobs are also susceptible to technology – a better digital device means you don’t need much people to use the camera, and in some cases, filters can do the cosmetics job. In addition, technological disruption threatens the higher role of the creative food chain.
Media, content and coding (all the top California industries) are the fastest disruptive media and coding for AI. This is the core of the 2023 labor war launched by Hollywood writers and actors. This is not as good as salary and benefits, as companies use intangible assets and intellectual property, such as story ideas, digital images and sound, how many control workers have for control workers like AI and how to share all of this wealth.
Intangible assets - software, patents, digital data, trademarks and other intellectual property rights - account for approximately 80% of the balance sheet value of large companies. This makes sense because we live in a service economy that is increasingly dependent on digital data. The percentage of wealth living in IP will only grow.
Hollywood relies more on intangible assets than most sectors. Many actors start the movie with some extra work alongside union membership (and thus benefiting from health care). However, digital images are now eliminating most of the work. Many writers are replaced by Chatgpt, not just enhancements.
The media may be at the forefront of destruction, but law and health care are not lagging behind. There are many places across the country except Hollywood, and Trump can foster a larger political foundation by committing to keep foreigners and automation away from them. I can imagine that he banned foreign radiologists who we read X-rays, or targeted large law firms that hired virtual research associations. The fact that it is financially helpful or hurts people does not necessarily matter. It's about political optics.
So, as Democrats increasingly buy a “rich” agenda focused on regulatory reform rather than cementing themselves as a privileged party unlike neoliberal policies of the 1990s, Trump is fostering a new group of anxious workers, this time serving. Too smart. And there is a problem. While the Maga Manufacturing range mainly attracts a small percentage of manual workers in a few swing states, the service sector accounts for 79% of the U.S. workforce. It is indeed an unstable politics.
rana.foroohar@ft.com