California Democrats bash Trump's foreign-film tariffs: ‘Nonsensical'
California Democrats are hammering President Trump's recent proposal to slap new tariffs on foreign-made films.
The lawmakers are warning that, if it's imposed, Trump's 100 percent levy would simply result in higher costs for movie consumers in the United States.
'This is just nonsensical,' Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday in the Capitol.
'There are things that we can do to increase production [and encourage] the film industry to film in the United States,' he continued. 'We should be looking at those ideas and strategies, not reckless tariffs that will cost people jobs and raise costs for Americans.'
Trump announced his new tariff proposal Sunday night on Truth Social, saying the incentives other countries provide to attract filmmakers pose a national security threat. The policy change, he said, would revive a domestic movie industry that's 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. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,' he wrote in the post.
'It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!' he added. '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!'
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who represents parts of Los Angeles, joined Aguilar in bashing the proposal as short-sighted, saying it would damage the industry it purports to save. Lieu said the more effective strategy would be tax incentives designed to entice filmmakers to do their work in the United States — a concept he had championed when he was a member of California's state Legislature.
'Donald Trump didn't appear to have talked to anyone about the 100 percent tariff on foreign movies — it just seems like another random idea that he put out there with no thought about how it would actually be implemented. Because if it was implemented, it would increase consumer costs on movies,' Lieu said.
'Also, it would just make some movies really far less interesting,' Lieu added. 'If 'All Quiet on the Western Front' had to be renamed 'All Quiet on the U.S. Side of the Canadian Border' — [that's a] much less interesting movie. So there's just no thought behind what Donald Trump is doing with his indiscriminate tariffs.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Tim Walz (D), former Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate in the 2024 election. Influencers within the online right have been floating a conspiracy theory about Walz and the shooter, based on the fact that Walz had reappointed Boelter to a state economic panel in 2019. Democrats and liberals reacted furiously. Klobuchar told MSNBC on Monday that she 'condemned' what Lee had done and said she would 'speak to him about this' when they next met. 'What I'm going to tell him is: This isn't funny,' Klobuchar added. Smith, at the Capitol, told reporters she was also seeking out Lee for a conversation. The Hill's Al Weaver posted a photo of the two in conversation soon afterward. Weaver also reported that Smith told reporters she wanted Lee to hear from her directly 'about how painful that was and how brutal that was to see that on what was just a horrible, brutal weekend.' 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The news organization also noted that, contrary to online speculation, Boelter's wife had never served as an intern for Walz. There appears to have been some confusion over another person with the same name, married to someone else. But at times, careful reporting seems little match for the tsunami of often-erroneous social media speculation. Reams have been written about the growing polarization of American politics over the past few decades. But there is a lot of evidence that the nation's political gulf just keeps getting wider and more bitter. The shootings in Minnesota are sure to produce more questions about where this will all lead. Trump himself was almost killed last July during a rally in Pennsylvania. A California man in April pleaded guilty to trying to kill conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Several men were convicted in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020. With no end in sight to the enmity in the political system, attention is turning to increasing security for lawmakers and others in public life. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — along with the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle (N.Y.) — wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday asking to increase the amount of money available to lawmakers to bolster security. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
