President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the United States in a post shared on his Truth Social account Sunday (May 4) night.
"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 wrote. "Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!"
It wasn't clear how the proposed tariff would be imposed as of Monday (May 5) morning as films are intellectual property, not goods, therefore would represent a kind of service not currently subject to tariffs. The United States Trade Representative does, however, claim that some services can be subject to certain non-tariff trade barriers, which includes regulations and tax incentives, that could disadvantage American filmmaking.
Foreign cities have offered large tax breaks to film and television studios as an alternative to Hollywood, which has led to numerous productions shifting operations. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently proposed a massive tax credit in an effort to bring film production back to Hollywood in response to the migration.
Trump's sweeping tariffs on international goods have led to the prices on goods around the world rising, though the president claimed "everybody's gonna be fine" in an ABC News interview last week.
"Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on. I said that we've been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before … I could've left it that way, and at some point, there would've been an implosion like nobody's ever seen. But I said, 'No, we have to fix it.' I've -- I've wanted to do this for many years," Trump said when asked by ABC News Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran if he was downplaying concern over the tariffs' impact.