U.S. President Donald Trump is ordering new tariffs on all movies made outdoors the United States, claiming Hollywood was being “devastated” by a development of U.S. filmmakers and studios working overseas.
The announcement comes because the White House is coming underneath mounting criticism over its aggressive commerce insurance policies which have seen Trump impose sweeping tariffs on international locations across the globe.
“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,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reposted Trump’s missive, saying “We’re on it.”
No particulars had been offered on how the tariff can be applied.
Trump’s publish comes after China, which has taken the brunt of the U.S. president’s combative commerce insurance policies with 145 % tariffs on many items, mentioned final month it could scale back the variety of U.S. movies it imported.
“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,” Trump wrote Sunday.
“Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” he added, claiming that manufacturing being drawn to different international locations was a “National Security threat.”
The implications for the film trade — or how precisely the tariffs can be enacted — weren’t instantly clear.
There was additionally no point out in Trump’s publish of whether or not tv sequence, an more and more in style and worthwhile sector of manufacturing for the display screen, can be affected.
Hollywood is a significant sector of the United States’ financial system, producing greater than 2.3 million jobs and $279 billion in gross sales in 2022, based on the most recent knowledge from the Motion Picture Association.
But within the wake of the Hollywood strikes and the COVID pandemic impacts — which modified how Americans consumed motion pictures, opting to look at at dwelling as an alternative of in theaters — the trade continues to be struggling to regain its momentum, trade insiders say.
According to a January report by manufacturing monitoring service ProdPro, the United States is a high filming hub with $14.5 billion in manufacturing spend — although that quantity is a 26 % drop in comparison with two years earlier.
However, a survey of studio executives revealed that their high 5 most well-liked manufacturing places for 2025 and 2026 had been all outdoors of the United States, on account of aggressive tax incentive schemes on provide.
First was Toronto, adopted by Britain, Vancouver, Central Europe after which Australia. California got here in at sixth place.
Ahead of his inauguration in January, Trump appointed longstanding supporters Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as particular envoys to Hollywood.
He mentioned they’d make the leisure trade “STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE” in a publish on Truth Social.
Trump and the Republicans have historically obtained scant assist from the leisure trade, and a galaxy of stars from Taylor Swift to George Clooney backed Democrat Kamala Harris within the 2024 presidential election.
© 2025 AFP