Steven Spielberg made his bones making movies that highlighted the exquisite ordinariness of Southern California suburban life. This was most exemplified in his 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which stars latchkey kids, overseen by their overworked single mother, riding their Kuwahara BMX bikes straight into cinematic history.
But now Spielberg is putting up his kickstand and leaving California.
The legendary filmmaker and creator says it’s really not because of the California Democratic Party’s billionaire tax. That tax is popular with millionaire Bernie Sanders and Congressman Ro Khanna, who has lately ruined the lives of four innocent men he doxxed from the Epstein Files. The real issue is a retrospective and future theft of the intellectual property owned by California “billionaires,” of which Spielberg is one.
And so he is leaving.
Steven Spielberg becomes latest billionaire to ditch California ahead of proposed wealth tax.
— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) February 20, 2026
For decades he funded and voted for the radical left in California. Now he is fleeing and leaving others to deal with the mess he helped to create. pic.twitter.com/lVRXcyAQpS
He and his longtime (Indiana Jones) wife, Kate Capshaw, being the good Democrat funders that they are, are trying to quietly leave so as not to embarrass their hoped-for next president, in order to be closer to their kids and grandkids.
According to the New York Post, the legendary Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's List filmmaker is going to, of all places, Manhattan — where even Zohran Mamdani's proposed tax increases pale by comparison to the total past, present, and future check-jack of California's "billionaire" tax, which is hugely popular with the commies.
I did some math on his 9% increase. It’s effectively a 45% increase to your tax bill.
— jim (@jim98800218) February 18, 2026
Avg NYC house ~$850k x assessed value at .06 = $51k
Current NYC property tax 20.9%—> $10,500 bill
Mamdani’s tax at 29.9%–> $15,249 bill
That’s effectively a 45% increase.
This is on top… pic.twitter.com/6aDLiiLka3
Their leave-taking, however, comes on the heels of all the other billionaires who are getting the heck out of dodge. We've noted the exodus in PJ Media in these stories: Rich People Flee California With $1 Trillion Before Left's Wealth Confiscation Plans Take Hold, West Coast, Messed Coast™ — And Then the Facebook Guy Fled California With His Zuck-Buck Billions, and California's Last Stand.
Among the billlionaires weighing anchor are:
- Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google co-founders)
- Mark Zuckerberg (Meta CEO)
- Peter Thiel (PayPal/Palantir co-founder)
- David Sacks (Craft Ventures, ex-PayPal)
- Chamath Palihapitiya
That equates to $1 trillion.
Spielberg knows this. He's likely seen this California exodus counter, which marks the amount of money lost per second due to the proposed "billionaire" tax that taxes his brain and his brawn.
Sure, Spielberg will never be GONE, gone from California, but he'll be just out of sight of ... the taxman. And that makes a difference.
A wise business wag recently told me that companies don't send out press releases announcing they're leaving. They simply fade away.
Spielberg's so big that this big move, making big news, is a fade-away.
And Gavin Newsom, though he claims to be opposed to this grievous tax plan, has done next to nothing to stop it.
A guy who wants to be president and lets the "4th largest economy in the world" dwindle to dust bunnies is a dumb choice for president in 2028, no?
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