How Donald Trump is getting his own back on LA – the city that bet against him
Donald Trump’s presidency has ushered in a new cultural zeitgeist and it has left actors, singers and film execs reeling. Stephen Armstrong reports on the vibe shift to the right and how Trump has set a collision course with Tinseltown
It’s hard being a liberal in Hollywood right now. They’re disorientated and confused. Richard Rushfield, editor of insider newsletter The Ankler, wrote a despairing screed the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration: “We are not part of the ruling coalition here. We do not speak from a place of dictating to America how things are going to be or demanding they follow our lead – or else. In particular, no one is looking to hear more from Hollywood.”
As if to prove his point, Selena Gomez posted an Instagram story earlier this year where she wept about the plight of immigrants under Trump. The backlash was so intense that she deleted it, adding, “Apparently it’s not OK to show empathy.”
Hollywood had assumed it could last year’s election win with its vibes-based Brat summer. Kamala Harris was heavily boosted by star power from George Clooney and Bruce Springsteen to Oprah Winfrey and Billie Eilish… the roll call is long and includes Michael Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Aniston and Cardi B. Even California’s Republican former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger voted Harris/Walz. But it turns out popular right-wing podcasters Joe Rogan and Theo Von hold more cultural sway than Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
Six months on and LA is a febrile place. In an unprecedented move this week, Trump seemingly declared war on the city and deployed thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles without California governor Gavin Newsom’s permission. More than 400 people have been arrested in LA since protests erupted in the wake of a string of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday, including 330 undocumented migrants and 157 individuals facing charges of assault or obstruction.
Police officers on foot and horseback dispersed crowds on Wednesday evening in downtown LA before enforcing a curfew for a second consecutive night, while mayor Karen Bass described it as a response to the president’s “chaotic escalation” of the situation.
In a video posted to TikTok, actor and producer Eva Longoria described mass deportations as “inhumane”. Actor Pedro Pascal shared a video on his Instagram page celebrating the diversity of immigrant communities in Los Angeles, which he captioned: “Los Ángeles. Built by the best of US #Protect our #Protectors #RESIST.”
Some celebrities say they were directly involved in the protests themselves. Musician and producer Finneas, brother of Billie Eilish, posted on Instagram: “Tear-gassed almost immediately at the very peaceful protest downtown. They’re inciting this.”
After devastating fires left the city traumatised at the beginning of the year, the LA Times posited this week that the president knew the deployment would be incendiary, and that was the point: goad LA into setting itself on fire.
The President Versus The Arts
The first signs of a collision course being set between Trump and America’s progressive culture scene were in February with his takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a bi-partisan national cultural centre based in Washington DC.
The Kennedy Center chair, David M Rubenstein, and president, Deborah Rutter, were promptly fired and replaced by Trump, who was appointed board chair and his ally Richard Grenell who was appointed president. They were then joined by 14 board of trustee members, including the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Usha Vance, wife of JD Vance.
At the time, Trump heralded the move as ushering in a “golden age of American arts and culture” and said that he would be overseeing “daily operations” to ensure “no more drag shows, or other anti-American propaganda”. This week, the president made his first appearance at the prestigious arts venue for the opening night of Les Miserables. After being greeted with a number of protesters in the auditorium and being asked about reports of cast members planning to sit out the performance, he insisted he “couldn’t care less”.
The President Versus Tinsel Town
LA is a progressive town, which puts it at odds with the drive for Maga populist ideas in America’s cultural life, but there are hints that moviegoers are now starting to question Hollywood’s progressive instincts. Fan reaction to The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Eternals and The Marvels was a howl of fanboy fury about “forced diversity”. Left-leaning documentary company Participant Media – which made An Inconvenient Truth – ran out of money and closed last year, while Am I Racist? was 2024’s highest-grossing documentary – chiming with a new cultural zeitgeist which Trump is now fully encapsulating.
New York Magazine’s cover story earlier this year, headlined “The Cruel Kids’ Table”, saw journalist Brock Colyar crashing the Trump inauguration parties and finding “Conservatism – as a cultural force, not just a political condition – back in a real way for the first time since the 1980s”. The enthusiastic new breed of triumphant Trumpists are young, well-connected, urban, and online crypto nerds and influencers – gay and straight – scorning identity politics and telling racist jokes, delighting in the freedom to say “f*****t” and “r******d”.
“More people think the Democrats are too liberal than say Republicans are too right wing,” a screenwriter explained when I asked him about this new vibe shift. “There’s no point in hating Trump voters. That’s the audience right now.”
The Academy Awards should be fun, but many people point to “liberal pearl-clutching speeches” of the recent events being a buzzkill and the viewing figures have been dwindling at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, taking a leaf out of the tech bros’ song sheet, celebrity allegiances are shifting like an agent’s smile. Snoop played the 2024 Oscars, but he also played a Trump inauguration party in January with Soulja Boy and Nelly.
Snoop’s Instagram followers plummeted, but he’s unapologetic and shrugging it off… despite lashing out at Kanye West for supporting Trump in 2018. Sniffing the wind change, Kim Kardashian appears to be playing both sides, hanging with Kamala in 2024 and Melania in 2025. “Is Kim Kardashian just a Republican now?” The Cut asked after Elon Musk gave her a Tesla, but this week she hit out against the immigration raids, writing on Instagram: “Growing up in LA, I've seen how deeply immigrants are woven into the fabric of this city. They are our neighbours, friends, classmates, coworkers, and family.
“No matter where you fall politically, it's clear that our communities thrive because of the contributions of immigrants. We can’t turn a blind eye when fear and injustice keep people from living their lives freely and safely. There HAS to be a BETTER way.”
Hollywood is an adaptable place. It has to be because, ultimately, Hollywood is about business. You don’t get to be the only unsubsidised movie industry in the world if you can’t read the room. In the 1980s – when conservatism was a cultural force by New York magazine’s reckoning – Sly Stallone punched out commie Dolph Lundgren and Tom Cruise outfoxed commie pilots in Top Gun… you get the idea.
Meanwhile Michael J Fox chased the almighty dollar in The Secret of My Success, Michael Douglas proclaimed “greed is good” in Wall Street, Ackroyd and Murphy cleaned up in Trading Places, Paul Newman and Tom Cruise hustled in The Color of Money… and earnest screenwriters asking what happened to all those left-wing conspiracy movies of the 1970s like All the President’s Men, Chinatown and Network were told, forget it kid, no one wants to see that stuff anymore.
Disney recently pulled a trans storyline from Pixar’s Win or Lose and pushed back on Rachel Zegler’s anti-Trump comments on Instagram. Zegler’s heading up the Mouse’s live-action remake of Snow White and the backlash was huge.
As former Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly said – “Hello, Disney? You’re going to have to redo your film again because this woman is a pig and you fired Gina Carano for far less.” (Carano is The Mandalorian star dropped in 2021 for posting on social media that being a Republican these days was like being Jewish during the Holocaust.) Zegler’s apology was fast and fulsome.
Whereas once being unwelcome in cultural circles and Hollywood would have bothered him, Trump is betting on tech being the new players in town. Silicon Valley gobbled up the music industry, the high street and your dating life and they’re coming for Tinseltown. Netflix, Amazon and Apple are moving and shaking up the old TV networks and movie studios and now making programmes and films just like Hollywood does.
The son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of Trump’s favourite billionaires, is poised to buy Paramount, the parent company of CBS News that Trump has accused of “unlawful and illegal behaviour” in the way it had edited a pre-election interview with Harris and is now suing for $20bn. Bezos owns Amazon Prime, and while Musk and Zuckerberg don’t have studios, they have consumer attention and are more than able to pull the levers of social media.
The thing about Hollywood is that it works on a strange equation. No one gets to run a studio unless they’re tooth and claw about money. A studio is a bank. They finance what sells. But for some reason, it’s liberals who make the best stories and liberals always need the cash. As leftie George Bernard Shaw said to rapacious mogul Sam Goldwyn: “There is this difference between you and me: you are only interested in art and I am only interested in money.”
And with a new administration hell bent on driving through a Maga populist agenda, it feels like LA is on the back foot and backtracking has started. Disney, which found itself at the forefront of the culture wars over Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” policy in 2023, began its retreat in early 2024 after CEO Bob Iger said he didn’t like the term “woke” and the company’s purpose is “to entertain”.
When the winds change, somehow Hollywood abides. And, for now, this is Trump’s world, and LA is feeling his full force in every way.
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