President Donald Trump recently announced a plan to impose a 100 percent tariff on movies made outside the United States. According to a source close to the White House, actor Jon Voight provided Trump with the idea for the policy, which aims to reinvigorate the American film and TV industries. Ben Allen, a California state senator from the Los Angeles area, mentioned that he heard about the possibility of tariffs from Voight days before Trump’s announcement.
Late last month, reports indicated that Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, had proposed a plan to Trump, suggesting federal tax incentives to keep productions in the U.S.
Trump had previously named Voight, along with Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, as his “Special Envoys” to Hollywood. In his announcement of the film tariff plan, Trump stated that he was authorizing the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to enact the tariff on films produced in “foreign lands,” also known as runaway productions. He labeled these productions a “national security threat,” claiming they’re causing the film industry to decline rapidly.
Tariff proposal for foreign films
“Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a national security threat.
It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
While it is true that film jobs, especially in California, have declined significantly in recent years due to high production costs and fewer incentives, many films also shoot overseas for creative reasons. These films would ostensibly be affected by the 100 percent tariff if implemented. The actual plan for implementing the tariff remains unclear.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that “no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made.” However, the Trump administration is “exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again.”
The Motion Picture Association, the film industry’s lobbying arm, has yet to comment on Trump’s tariff plan. Filmmakers and Hollywood financiers are bewildered by the announcement, with several movie studio and streaming industry executives expressing severe concern about the potential impact on the iconic industry.
