President Donald Trump appears keen on reviving his roundly criticized threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on movies made outside the United States.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social Monday, Sept. 29, writing, “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’ California, with its weak and incompetent Governor [Gavin Newsom], has been particularly hard hit! Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”
Like the last time he threatened to slap a 100 percent tariff on films made outside the U.S., Trump did not say when or how the tariff would be enacted. He first raised the prospect of the film tariffs in May, but there was no follow through.
As Trump’s post did note, film and television jobs in the United States, especially in California, have declined significantly in recent years because of high production costs and fewer tax incentives. But while many Hollywood productions have gone overseas in search of lucrative inducements, there are still plenty of creative — and non-economic — reasons a film would shoot outside the United States. Ostensibly, Trump’s tariff would affect all of these productions if implemented.
Unsurprisingly, Hollywood has balked at the plan — both because of the havoc it would wreak on the industry, and because of its general unfeasibility. As one industry source told CNN back when the first tariff announcement was made, “On first blush, it’s shocking and would represent a virtually complete halt of production. But in reality, he has no jurisdiction to do this and it’s too complex to enforce.”
Following Trump’s initial tariff announcement, one of his own hand-picked “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, Jon Voight, shared a plan for revitalizing the U.S. film industry that did not contain anything close to a 100 percent tariff on foreign productions. He suggested, instead, a combination of federal tax incentives, tax-code changes, co-production treaties, and infrastructure subsidies for theater owners, production, and postproduction companies. At most, Voight called for “tariffs in certain limited circumstances.”
A rep for Voight said the actor did not have any comment on Trump’s latest tariff call.
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