In a piece titled, "How Conservative Hollywood Worked to Elect Donald Trump," The Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond wrote about the influence of Hollywood conservatives like filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza and entertainer Pat Boone on Donald Trump's election victory last week.

Boone sent out a robocall plea to 3 million registered voters just before the election, actor Jon Voight promoted Trump on conservative talk radio across the country, and 1970s TV star Scott Baio and soap star Antonio Sabato Jr. spoke at the Republican National Convention.

Ann Coulter met with a dozen filmmakers and TV executives as well as with celebrities like Clint Eastwood during the primary season to convince them to support Trump.

Trump himself met with Hollywood conservatives and later told THR's Bond that his support in Hollywood was greater than most people realized.

As for Hillary Clinton's celebrity supporters, they did more harm than good by coming out in such pushy support for her while smearing Trump supporters as bigots.

“The vote for Trump was partially anti-media and anti-Hollywood,” says Stephen Winzenburg, a communications professor at Grand View University in Iowa and author of TV’s Greatest Talk Shows:

“One of the worst things Clinton could do was bring out high-paid celebrities that have no real connection with Middle America. Katy Perry appeared in Des Moines and looked like a joke with a giant red ‘H’ on her chest with her boobs popping out and an American flag cape waving behind her. If she thought she was inspiring Iowans to vote for Hillary, the opposite was happening.”

Then when The Avengers director Joss Whedon made a pro-Hillary video starring A-list stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson, a Republican ad firm called BrabenderCox countered with a $10,000 video called "Save the Day" mocking the celebrities. It was viewed 14 million times prior to the election.

BrabenderCox CEO John Brabender said,

“The battle for election content wasn’t won by the 30-second TV spot but by the three-minute Internet video... Hollywood liberals were very vocal and the irony is that it worked against Clinton. They basically told people, ‘Agree with us or you’re wrong.’ That rubbed even blue-collar Democrats the wrong way.

“Stars have grand lives and don’t understand the problems of average Americans. Hillary appeared like she was part of the system of elites — like she’d be president to the stars.”

Republican writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, whose credits include The Hanoi Hilton and Ike: Countdown to D-Day, says of Hollywood’s reaction to his support of Trump, “It’s the most intense experience I’ve ever had. Some were outright hostile. ‘I never want to work with you again’ was always implied,” he says. “Some people I’ve known for 40 years looked at me like I was the scum of the earth.”

Filmmaker Joel Gilbert made an online short called "The Constitution Strikes Back," in which candidate Ted Cruz is portrayed as a Star Wars Jedi, before shifting his support to Trump. Gilbert conceptualized a giant digital billboard in Times Square on which Trump was depicted as Superman, and fed lines and ideas to Trump staffers for months leading up to the election.

Filmmakers Robert Perkins and Justin Folk, whose credits include The Matrix Trilogy, partnered with former The O’Reilly Factor and Morning Joe producer Owen Brennan to found Madison McQueen, a GOP-friendly creator of advertising that made 30 TV and online commercials for four super PACs. Among them was a video called Pay My Foundation which depicted a Hillary lookalike rapping about selling influence. The online ad was viewed 32 million times.

“Our mission is to bring Hollywood production values to the war of ideas,” says Brennan. “The center-right has the best ideas for the country but are the worst storytellers.”

In addition to prominent feature films like Dinesh D’Souza’s Hillary’s America and Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash, there were many lesser-known efforts such as The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, a documentary which targets Hillary's radical mentor, Saul Alinsky. It aired more than 20 times on Catholic channel EWTN in the month prior to the election, and fans in 10 battleground states hosted viewing parties.

Filmmaker Phelim McAleer made several online films based on testimony from Clinton’s email scandal, and they were viewed half a million times. McAleer also made a video called Hillary on Fracking in America which was viewed 876,000 times in energy states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

Other Hollywood insiders such as actor Robert Davi, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Roger Simon, and radio talk show host Larry Elder campaigned heavily for Trump in battleground states.

Trump was right -- his support in Hollywood is greater than most people realized, and now Hollywood conservatives may feel more inclined to support him openly.