As so often the story goes, our deranged president made an online proclamation that is either completely meaningless or a measure that will decimate an entire industry.
Still, for all the other fires attributed to the current administration, the prospect of the reality TV president killing what’s left of Hollywood is too painful a scenario to ignore.
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social last weekend to announce a plan to impose a 100% tariff on “any and all” movies produced in “foreign lands.”
Trump wrote:
“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. 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!”
The blame for this terrifying outburst belongs to Angelina Jolie’s estranged daddy, actor Jon Voight, who, along with his manager, recently submitted a proposal to Trump that included the idea of imposing tariffs on films produced outside the United States.
Voight, along with Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, serves as one of Trump’s “Ambassadors to Hollywood.”
(Note: Gibson is currently shooting a sequel to The Passion of the Christ in Italy, a foreign land.)
Trump did not detail how those tariffs would be implemented because, unsurprisingly, experts have concluded that such a tariff would likely be impermissible and impractical to implement.
Yet because we live in tyranny where every stupid, self-sabotaging can be tried – laws be damned – his announcement sparked panic and confusion across Hollywood studios and streaming services.
The best response I’ve read from the industry to Trump’s plan is from a nameless British producer who told Variety: “Even unemployed Americans are saying this is nuts — these are people who have genuinely had their careers shattered because of production moving to Europe.”
In response to the widespread freakout, Trump and the White House retracted the tariff talk on Monday.
Trump said he would ask Hollywood studios if “they’re happy” with his proposal to impose tariffs on films made outside of the U.S.
“I’m not looking to hurt the industry, I want to help the industry,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“So we’re going to meet with the industry,” he added. “I want to make sure they’re happy with it because we’re all about jobs.”
Separately, White House spokesman Kush Desai said: “The 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.”
Much as I try to avoid aligning with evil, Trump was not wrong when he told reporters that the American film industry “has been decimated by other countries taking them out.”
I am in Los Angeles and have experienced the aftermath of the contraction in Hollywood in a post-strike, post “peak TV” era from a writer’s vantage point, but for others I have know working in entertainment, I can attest to how in 2025, a studio lot 20 minutes from me will sit empty as the network finds it cheaper to fly 300 Americans from SoCal to Ireland to film an entire season of a game show for a week and a half.
I like that my friends get to travel and can tell me where to find good wings and West Coast rap in Dublin, should I find myself out that way, but we all contemplate what happens to LA if this pattern continues.
So it pains me to add that Sweet Potato Saddam is not totally wrong for highlighting that this has happened “by incompetence, like in Los Angeles, the governor [Gavin Newsom] is a grossly incompetent man, he’s just allowed it to be taken away from.”
Newsom may have tried more recently to boost tax credits, but plenty across the industry have criticized him for not doing more sooner to prevent the fleeing of Hollywood productions in his state and others like Louisiana and Georgia.
Those productions and the jobs that come with them are going to the U.K. and elsewhere – non-union jobs for the most part.
Newsom, like many Democrats, was complacent with the status quo and wrongly assumed the industry wouldn’t leave.
In response to Trump, Newsom wrote on X:
“California built the film industry — and we’re ready to bring even more jobs home. We’ve proven what strong state incentives can do. Now it’s time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again.
@POTUS, let’s get it done.”
Voight’s idea for tariffs on foreign-made films is widely unpopular, but a separate suggestion he made — a federal tax credit — aligns with pushes made by Hollywood lobbying outlets, such as the Motion Picture Association, which have argued that the U.S. needs a federal film incentive as a carrot to lure productions back.
The idea is that this federal tax credit will encourage states to add their incentives to compete with other countries.
If this were to happen and jobs returned, perhaps Donald Trump would be celebrated as a savior of the entertainment industry.
It would not absolve him of his other bad policies, corruption, and crimes, but if that demon can help me and mine finally get our stuff made, I’ll take it.
However, this would require Trump to work with Newsom, whom he seems to hate, along with Senator Adam Schiff, whom he hates even more than Newsom, often referring to him as “Shifty Schiff” and “Watermelon Head.”
This would also require a change to the tax code, i.e., getting Congress involved.
This could happen in theory, but this Congress is full of conspiratorial Republicans who loathe all things “liberal” and are generally useless in functionality.
I won’t hold my breath on any of this happening in the short term, but what I can see, however, is the other aspects of Trump’s Truth Social post happening that have been covered less.
When he cites his basis to impose tariffs on “national security” and warns of “messaging and propaganda,” it heightens my concern that, where Trump won’t succeed in imposing tariffs on films, he can somehow try to strongarm studios to make it more difficult for certain international films to be seen.
Say, those who criticize U.S. policies or those of their allies like Israel, as was the case for No Other Land, which struggled to find an American distributor despite winning Best Documentary this year at the Oscars.
Hollywood does not need any assistance from Trump on silencing nonwhite and nontraditional voices, but unfortunately, they do need his help.
I don’t know how “happy” Trump can make Hollywood, so though tariffs are not the answer, there needs to be some real effort made to make Hollywood and the rest of the regions supporting it work steadily again.
If not, it will just be homegrown productions courtesy of Tyler Perry, Tubi, and presumably, Trump sympathizers exempt from “tariffs.”
Michael Arceneaux is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book, “I Finally Bought Some Jordans,” was published last March.
SEE ALSO:
The Segregationist Administration: How Trump’s Team Is Systematically Dismantling Civil Rights
Op-Ed: In America, Calling A Black Child The N-Word Could Make You A Millionaire
