Trump Stays Silent on Flight Shutdown, Touts Federal Film Tax Incentive

More than 10,000 flights sat delayed across the United States on Friday under a rare nationwide ground stop — and President Donald Trump had not issued a statement on it. Instead, he was promoting a federal film and television tax incentive on Truth Social.

The contrast was stark. While air traffic halted, Trump assured his followers that "meetings are being set up to GET THIS DONE" for the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, a proposed federal tax credit aimed at pulling production work back to the U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin did address the public after the ground stop was called. "This isn't another 9/11. This is a telecommunication outage," he told the nation.

What did Trump actually say?

The president's post, published Friday, named an unusually broad bipartisan roster. Trump said he is working with Senator Tim Scott and, "believe it or not, Senator Adam Schiff," along with Senators John Cornyn, Raphael Warnock, Steve Daines, Bernie Moreno, Tim Sheehy, Alex Padilla, Mark Warner, Thom Tillis, Chris Coons, Katie Britt, and Dick Durbin.

The House side, according to Trump, includes Representatives Jason Smith, Nathaniel Moran, Brian Jack, and Linda Sanchez, "and many others, both Republican and Democrat."

His argument rested on two claims. First, that foreign incentives have hollowed out American production: "Hollywood, and so many other places, have been virtually 'emptied out' by the Tax Incentives, and much more, given by other Countries." Second, that the industry wants to return: "The Entertainment Industry has largely moved to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries, but the actors, producers, and all others involved want to come back home!"

A tax incentive, in this context, is a credit that reduces a production's tax bill — usually in exchange for shooting in a given state or country. Roughly 40 U.S. states already run their own versions; the federal bill would stack a national credit on top.

What does this change for film and TV workers?

If passed, the act would directly affect "hundreds of thousands of Blue Collar Workers," Trump wrote — the crew members, builders, drivers, and technicians who staff productions. He framed the treasury math as self-funding: "The amount of money spent on these Tax Incentives will be made up tenfold by the money pouring into the Treasury's coffers."

The timing may not be accidental. Politico reported Friday that "Hollywood's tax credit push runs into a post-midterm wall," and Trump's post reads, in part, as a rebuttal. He called the bill "a very Bipartisan undertaking, especially in that so much of the money being lost to other countries is coming out of the Blue States," and urged both parties to "finalize this already very actively negotiated Legislation."

He closed with a signature flourish: "It was MADE IN AMERICA, and must STAY IN AMERICA... MAKE OUR ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY GREAT AGAIN!"

Why the silence matters

The optics are hard to miss. A ground stop of this scale — with more than 10,000 delays — normally draws an immediate presidential statement. Mullin's reassurance that the cause was a telecommunication outage, not an attack, was the administration's main public response.

Trump's choice to spend the day on film policy signals where his legislative priority lies. With senators from Schiff to Scott reportedly at the table and meetings happening "routinely," the entertainment tax credit now looks like one of the more actively negotiated items on the congressional calendar — whatever is happening at the nation's airports.