Trump Plans to Impose 100% Tariff on All Movies Produced Outside of the U.S.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, '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. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.'
More from IndieWire
'Rosario' Review: Crispy 'Drag Me to Hell' Riff Gets Swallowed by David Dastmalchian and an Air Fryer
Bruce Springsteen Calls 'Adolescence' Star Stephen Graham 'Amazing' as His Father in 'Deliver Me from Nowhere'
Trump went on to claim that production moving overseas was part of a 'concerted effort' by foreign countries to undermine American business, calling it 'a national security threat.'
'It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!' Trump wrote. '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!'
Hollywood has been on the President's hit list from the very start of his second administration. One of his first actions in office was to name Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight as 'special ambassadors' to help fix an ailing Hollywood. Though not much has been heard from Gibson or Stallone on this effort, Voight has been making the rounds with different union reps and studio executives (as per Deadline). Many were hopeful this might lead to a possible federal tax incentive for production throughout the U.S., but as it's become Trump's new favorite toy, it seems a tariff is what we'll get.
It's unclear whether this tariff will apply to films alone or also include other media such as television, music videos, or commercials, but if so, it may end up doing more damage than good. The stated goal is to incentivize bringing production back to the States and in particular, Hollywood — but this doesn't actually reduce the cost of production in the way federal U.S. Tax incentives would. This just makes production outside the U.S. more expensive. The net result may be that the studios would just reduce production across the board.
As far as tax incentives, in October 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom put forth a proposal to increase the state's tax program to $750 million, over twice as much as it's doling out currently. Others have offered further increases, suggesting no cap be placed on this figure. Voting for this initiative will take place this summer.
Best of IndieWire
Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See
'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie
The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
24 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump signals deference to farmers on undocumented workers
President Trump late Thursday signaled deference to farmers in the U.S. who employ undocumented migrants, aiming to shield some of them from his administration's deportation efforts. 'Farmers, look, they know better. They work with them for years. You had cases where, not year, but just even over the years where people have worked for a farm, on a farm for 14, 15 years and they get thrown out pretty viciously and we can't do it. We gotta work with the farmers, and people that have hotels and leisure properties too,' Trump told the crowd at the 'Salute to America' event in Des Moines, Iowa. The president indicated during his speech, which formally kicked off the year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, that his administration is working on legislation that would permit some migrants without authorization to stay in the country and keep working on farms. 'We're gonna work with them and we're gonna work very strong and smart, and we're gonna put you in charge. We're gonna make you responsible and I think that that's going to make a lot of people happy,' Trump said, acknowledging that 'serious radical right people, who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy but they'll understand.' Trump then turned toward Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who was in attendance, and asked if 'they'll understand that.' 'You're the one that brought this whole situation up. Brooke Rollins brought it up and she said, 'So we have a little problem. The farmers are losing a lot of people,' and we figured it out and we have some great stuff being written,' the president said in Iowa, the state that has over 86,000 farms. 'Let the farmers be responsible.' The White House has gone back and forth on the issue of migrant labor on farms and in the hotel industry. The administration has directed immigration agents to mostly halt raids at hotels, plants and farms in early June, though it reversed course days later. Later in June, Trump said during an interview on Fox News that a temporary pass would be issued to migrants in the hospitality industry and on farms to allow their employers to have more control. 'I cherish our farmers. And when we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years, who were good, who possibly came in incorrectly. And what we're going to do is we're going to do something for farmers where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge,' Trump said on Fox News's 'Sunday Morning Futures' with Maria Bartiromo. 'The farmer knows he's not going to hire a murderer.' During his speech in Iowa, the president warned that if the farmers do not do a 'good job, we'll throw them out of the country.' 'We'll let the illegals stay and we'll throw the farmer the hell out, okay? Get ready, farmer,' he said.
CNN
27 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump says he wasn't aware term ‘Shylock' viewed as antisemitic after using it at rally
President Donald Trump said early Friday that he wasn't aware that some people view the word 'Shylock' as antisemitic after using the term during a rally to decry amoral money lenders. 'I've never heard it that way. To me, Shylock is somebody that's a money lender at high rates,' Trump told reporters after getting off Air Force One. 'I've never heard it that way, you view it differently than me. I've never heard that.' Trump was arriving back in Washington after an event in Iowa marking the kick-off to nationwide celebrations marking the country's 250th anniversary next year. In his speech, he used the word when touting aspects of the major domestic policy bill that had been approved by Congress a few hours earlier. 'Think of that: no death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowings from in some cases a fine banker. And in some cases, Shylocks and bad people,' he said during his event in Des Moines. 'They took away a lot of, a lot of family. They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite.' The name 'Shylock' derives from the name of the antagonist in William Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice.' Shylock, a Jew, was a ruthless moneylender in the play, and he's remembered for demanding a 'pound of flesh' from the merchant Antonio if he failed to repay a loan. Then-Vice President Joe Biden apologized for using the word in 2014 after the national director of the Anti-Defamation League at the time issued a mild rebuke of his use of the word, saying Biden 'should have been more careful.' Biden made the reference in a speech while recalling anecdotes from his son's experience serving in Iraq and meeting members of the military who were in need of legal help because of problems back at home. 'I mean these Shylocks who took advantage of, um, these women and men while overseas,' he said. Some Democrats were quick to criticize Trump's use of the word on Thursday. 'This is blatant and vile antisemitism, and Trump knows exactly what he's doing,' Rep. Daniel Goldman of New York wrote on social media. 'Anyone who truly opposes antisemitism calls it out wherever it occurs — on both extremes — as I do.' Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said on social media: 'Shylock is among the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes. This is not an accident. It follows years in which Trump has normalized antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories — and it's deeply dangerous.'
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's FBI Deputy Director Is A Podcaster Who Thinks The Election Was Stolen
President Donald Trump tapped a conservative media personality and conspiracy theorist for a big job in his administration. Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who later hosted a Fox News show and pilots a popular right-wing podcast, is deputy director of the FBI despite having no leadership experience at the department. His appointment did not require a Senate confirmation. Bongino, who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2012, is a major promoter of some of Trump's favorite conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and COVID-19. He's also a 'significant shareholder' in the right-wing video platform Rumble, the company said. Here are some of the biggest whoppers he's spread. Researchers haveidentified Bongino as one of the most effective spreaders of misinformation around the 2020 election, noting he spent hours of his podcast and posted widely shared videos on social media promoting debunked claims about ballot harvesting and suspicious votes. 'The FBI and the CIA, members of it, unquestionably tried to rig both the 2016 and 2020 election,' he once told his listeners. Bongino, who has nearly 6 million followers on Facebook, had over 7.7 million interactions on Facebook the week of the 2020 election, The New York Times found at the time. In May 2024, he warned his listeners that they should still be leery of Democrats 'stealing an election' from Trump. 'Do not let them fleece this thing again,' he said on an episode of his podcast. Bongino, who claimed the FBI was 'irredeemably corrupt' after its agents raided Mar-a-Lago, raised diversity, equity and inclusion policies as a possible culprit behind the Secret Service's failure to prevent an assassination attempt on Trump last summer. 'They put out a thousand tweets about all this DEI stuff,' he said of the Secret Service. 'Do I know that's related here? I don't, I'm just saying, like ― you have one job and only one job.' After another person was apprehended for plotting an assassination attempt on Trump in September, Bongino asked whether there could be a 'mole' among the agents assigned to protect Trump or that one of them could be mishandling information about his whereabouts. 'Is there a honeypot trap going on in the Secret Service?' he asked on an episode of his podcast. 'Is there a guy or a woman in the Secret Service having a relationship with someone who is not who they say they are?' In an August episode of his podcast, Bongino questioned the integrity of the FBI's investigation into the assassination attempts. 'Folks, the FBI is at it again. I don't trust these people at all,' he wrote on social media alongside a clip from his podcast. Bongino has also claimed that footage the FBI released of the Jan. 6, 2021, pipe bomb suspect may have been 'manipulated' and that something sinister is afoot. 'Something is going on here. Where is the video of him dropping the bomb? Why don't we have it? Why does it appear manipulated?' he said in a January 2024 episode. 'Ladies and gentlemen, somebody's hiding something, and it's not small. They are hiding something freaking huge,' he continued. He's also pushed the theory that President Barack Obama's administration had at least one FBI agent tasked with spying on the 2016 Trump campaign. While discussing the idea on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show at the time, Bongino simply cited 'reporting.' In 2022, YouTube temporarily suspended Bongino's account, which had around 900,000 subscribers, for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, he claimed masks were 'useless' at preventing the virus' spread despite research to the contrary ― something YouTube said violated its misinformation policy. When Bongino tried to circumnavigate the ban by posting from another account, the video platform banned him permanently. Shortly after, Google pulled all ads from Bongino's website. He said one of the pieces of content Google cited was about Anthony Fauci, then the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, and said that his 'use of masks despite being vaccinated had nothing to do with science.' In 2022, Bongino suggested Biden's administration may have been responsible for the explosions that ruptured a set of natural gas pipelines — Nord Stream 1 and 2 — running between Russia and Germany. The act of sabotage, the Wall Street Journal reports, was carried out by Ukraine, though Russia blamed the U.S. Bongino backed up the Kremlin's claims in an episode of his podcast. 'Is the Biden administration crazy enough to do this to light a spark that might cause World War III?' he asked. 'The answer is, 'I wouldn't be surprised, and I bet neither would you.'' 'The motivations of the Biden administration and the green agenda, I think, are far greater than the motivations of Russia,' he continued. Ex-Secret Service Agent And Conservative Media Personality Dan Bongino Picked As FBI Deputy Director A Conspiracy Theorist Is Officially In Charge Of The FBI Under Trump New FBI Deputy Director Is 'Significant Shareholder' In Right-Wing Video Platform
