By Kayode Ogunbunmi
A few months after initially threatening a 100% tariff on films that are produced in countries other than the United States, US President Donald Trump escalated on the plan by announcing this week his solution to the “never-ending problem” that he said is killing Hollywood.
On MMonday, he took to his favorite Truth Social media platform to express his mind.
“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, has been particularly hard hit!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “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.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” he concluded.
In May, Trump had written that the “Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.”
“Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump said. “Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.”
He said that the situation was a “concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.
“It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” Trump wrote.
“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Trump concluded.
Trump’s tariff idea has sparked a response from various celebrities.
Whoopi Goldberg wrote:
“Okay, look, you can’t do that, because what that equates to is, you’re going to tell me how to write the story I want to write if it happens in Europe,” Goldberg said during an episode of “The View.” “Look, could you please lower the price of eggs before you start this?”
“When you go over to another country to work, you work with the people who are there. We don’t import our folks to go over there. Who are you going to put this tariff on? The production? The studio? What are you talking about?”
Doug Eldridge, founder of Achilles PR, says that Hollywood is not dead yet, but if the industry continues on this trajectory, a “call to hospice is not far away.”
“Why? Because of the decentralization of the creative process over the last 40 years. If you rewind the tape, the reason they called so many of those Clint Eastwood movies ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ is because it was cheaper to film in Italy–as well as southeastern Spain–than it was in Hollywood, or the Midwest, like most of the iconic John Wayne films, just 10-20 years earlier.”
California governor Gavin Newsom’s press office responded to the Trump post with its own statement on X: “The Governor tried to explain this to Trump months ago — when this was initially proposed — that his actions will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. film industry. Today’s move is 100% stupid.”
