Hollywood to Trump "Tariff: Don't Like It"
Trump's 100% Foreign Film tariff lands with a thud in Tinseltown
As someone who recently wrote a Substack called “Trump is Coming for Hollywood,” I honestly wasn’t expecting this was the way he’d do it. On Sunday, he announced in Trumpian fashion on his Truth Social that he was imposing “100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” Deadline reports that this scheme was likely hatched - or at least inspired - by actor Jon Voight, one of Trump’s self-appointed ambassadors to Hollywood. Voight has been meeting with several Hollywood unions (DGA, IATSE, Teamsters) in recent weeks and reporting back to the White House.
I’m sure most people working - or certainly the thousands of film workers unemployed - in Hollywood would applaud any kind of national tax incentive to compete with those in much of the rest of the world. Los Angeles-area film production is down substantially from pre-pandemic/strike levels, and US production writ large has shrunk. But I sincerely doubt that anyone in Hollywood suggested that tariffs were the mechanism to eliminate off-shore production. Tariffs simply aren’t a well-suited bludgeon for things like digital goods, on which the World Trade Organization has a moratorium until 2026. And they won’t easily work when the real problem is Hollywood studios - the owners of the films - move their entire productions off-shore, but bring the films themselves (in the form of digital files) back to the States to be released.
Perhaps Mr. Voight (whom I’m sure Trump thinks knows what’s hidden in the Resolute Desk) failed to mention to the President that films are not simply shoes or iPhones. Trump seems to think, “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
But the real problem isn’t saucy imported foreign films like Rochelle, Rochelle that are poisoning our minds and our morals. So slapping on a 100% tariff on such erotic journeys from Milan to Minsk simply won’t solve the problem of Hollywood being out of work. All it will do is encourage protectionist trade wars with the rest of the world which will shut down imports of American films or maybe cut off tax incentives for American productions (which, perversely could help us) or maybe worse: Increase those incentives? US films have a hard enough time getting screens in countries around the world that have quotas on imported films and mandates for local ones.
Even for US indie films (my bailiwick) I can tell you we already face an uphill battle getting our films into international festivals: The big European festivals all get financial support from their home countries and the EU, and thus have quotas on showing high percentages of European films. The problem is magnified even more if an American indie even tries to get into international theaters.
Rob Lowe recently told fellow actor Adam Scott, “There are no tax credits, so like, all those other places are offering 40% — 40%. And then on top of that, there’s other stuff that they do.” The two half-joked that if Parks and Recreation were filmed now, it’d be shot in Budapest. Lowe, the erstwhile Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, likely isn’t a fan of Mr. Trump. And I suspect even the most adroit supporters of US tax incentives for films will look at Trump’s Tariff proposal as screwy at best and self-defeating to the industry at worst.
The real danger, though, is that once Trump has turned his and his minions’ attention to Hollywood, what else will he do next? Already, news broke yesterday that Skydance has “paused” spending on a 9/11 first responder series with Jeremy Strong, out of fear that the Trump administration will squash its proposed merger with Paramount.
Trump will undoubtedly do to Hollywood what he’s done to the legal community and is attempting to do with academia: Cynically grab a popular message and use it as a wedge to drive those communities apart. Just as he’s used the threat of “antisemitism” as a cudgel against higher education, he’ll likely use runaway Hollywood production and the promise of tariffs to divide and conquer Hollywood itself.
Stand firm, Hollywood. As Betty Davis says in All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”