If Trump’s idiotic movie tariff hurts the films I’m most excited about…
Donald Trump was on one this weekend. Literally. The President of the United States had about 20 things he was talking about and one of them was how movies need to be made in America. If they’re filmed overseas, he wants to put a 100% tariff on them.
When the President wasn’t tweeting about how he wants to reopen Alcatraz, he was posting about how movies shouldn’t be made overseas. According to the President, who has never starred in a movie himself (he’s always been a glorified cameo), the industry is dying because movies are being filmed in other countries. This is a practice that has been around for years. I don’t think anyone wants to see a Mission: Impossible movie set in Florida.
But for whatever reason, Trump thinks that this equates to the industry dying. There have been a lot of talks about bringing filming back to California as many have resorted to filming in locations like Georgia and New York but those are both decidedly in the United States. Still, Trump went on a rant on Truth Social all about the movie industry.
“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,” he wrote. “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!”
If you make my movies impossible to watch…
Right now, some big titles are being filmed across the pond. Edgar Wright’s The Running Man was filmed primarily in the United Kingdom, Supergirl and Avengers: Doomsday are both being filmed overseas, and Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey is also overseas. Which makes sense given the fact that it is set in ancient Greece!
The Truth Social rant has gone so far that the White House responded to questions about it, saying that no decisions were made but that they’re trying to figure out a way to bring filming back to America (it didn’t leave!). “Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, 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,” said spokesman Kush Desai during a press conference.
The real question is how would this even work. What are you putting a tariff on? A film is labeled as a service which cannot have a tariff, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. All of this just comes across like Trump was watching something, saw it was made in another country and thought “Why wasn’t that made here?” And it is really obnoxious that this is our timeline.
(featured image: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
