Donald Trump’s plan to slap movies made outside the United States with a 100 percent tariff was apparently the brain child of actor Jon Voight.
According to Politico, a source close to the White House credited the policy to the actor, who was earlier this year named one of Trump’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood (alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone). Ben Allen, a California state senator from the Los Angeles area who’s active in the world of Hollywood tax credits, also said he heard from Voight about the possibility of tariffs several days before Trump’s announcement.
Indeed, NBC News reported late last month that Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, had put together a proposal for Trump to reinvigorate the American film and TV industries. Details at the time, however, were slim, with one potential suggestion being federal tax incentives to keep productions in the U.S.
A rep for Voight did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
When Trump announced that Voight, Gibson, and Stallone would serve as his “Special Envoys” to Hollywood in January, the president flagged the issue of productions leaving the United States — which the tariffs are allegedly supposed to address. “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest,” Trump said at the time. “It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”
Those themes were echoed in Trump’s announcement of the murky film tariff plan on Sunday. The president said he was authorizing the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to enact the tariff on films produced in “foreign lands,” also known as runaway productions. Trump called these productions a “national security threat” and claimed they’re causing the film industry to die “a very fast death.”
“Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding: “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
It is true that film jobs, especially in California, have declined significantly in recent years because of high production costs and fewer incentives. While many productions have moved to other parts of the United States (like Atlanta), they’ve also gone abroad thanks to lucrative incentives offered by countries like the U.K. and Canada. But many films also shoot overseas for creative, not economic, reasons, and ostensibly these films would also be hit with the 100 percent if implemented.
In classic Trump administration fashion, the actual plan for implementation remains up in the air. On Monday, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that “no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made,” per Variety. Still, Desai continued, the Trump administration is “exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again” — whatever that possibly means.
The Motion Picture Association, the lobbying arm of the film industry, has yet to comment on Trump’s tariff plan.
From Rolling Stone US
