Trump drops a 100% tariff bomb on films 'produced in foreign lands' in a bid to save 'dying' Hollywood

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: President Donald Trump has announced that he is imposing a 100 percent tariff on movies made outside the US.

According to Trump, America’s movie business is in serious trouble. “Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” he warned on Truth Social. “Hollywood and many other areas within the USA are being devastated.” 

"This is a concerted effort by other Nations and therefore a National Security threat," Trump declared. "It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda."

“I am authorizing the Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100 percent tariff on any and all Movies coming to our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands," the POTUS announced, adding, “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN.”

Hollywood’s star is fading fast

Donald Trump might actually have a point. Hollywood is struggling, and the numbers are hard to ignore. Thanks to a painful slash in tax credits, more and more productions are ditching Tinseltown.

FilmLA, the agency that handles film permits across Los Angeles, reported a brutal 5 percent drop in film and TV production during the third quarter of 2024. That’s not even the worst of it. The total shoot days were clocked at 5,048, marking a jaw-dropping 36.4 percent dip compared to the five-year average.

Reality TV took the hardest hit, plummeting 56.3 percent year over year and dropping a massive 52.7 percent from the five-year average. Drama was down 34.4 percent, and comedy got absolutely crushed with an 85.7 percent nosedive from the five-year average. 

Overall, television production dropped 18.3 percent in the quarter, and a staggering 53.2 percent from the five-year norm.

Hollywood is begging for a lifeline, claim insiders

Industry insiders are raising alarms. “This is not hyperbole to say that if we don’t act, the California film and TV industry will become the next Detroit auto,” Noelle Stehman, a producer on The Sopranos and a member of the grassroots campaign Stay in LA, said during the film and TV industry town hall last month.

The organization is fighting to keep productions in town and rebuild LA’s “vibrant creative industry.” But convincing politicians to invest in the industry hasn’t been easy. Some still see boosting Hollywood as frivolous spending, not worth the taxpayer's dime.

California State Senator Ben Allen and Assemblyman Rick Zbur aren’t buying that argument. They’ve been pushing for more funding and fighting to keep jobs from heading overseas.

“This is not a tax giveaway. This is a job program that is keeping people in their homes, keeping people off the unemployment rolls,” Zbur argued. “If we don’t do this, it’s going to cost a lot, lot more than these tax credits are costing us.”

And it’s not just other US states luring productions away. Places like Austria and Vienna are scoring post-production work for two-thirds less than California’s rates. In Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, that figure is 90 percent less.

Sound editors and lawmakers step in

Karen Baker Landers, a two-time Oscar-winning sound editor, said that the erosion is real. 

"Depending on the size of a film, post-production can employ dozens to hundreds of people," she said, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter.

"Traditionally, it’s not unusual to shoot out of state or out of country based on the creative needs of the story. However, it always came back to California to post. That’s not been the case anymore," Landers continued.

"Visual effects, sound, picture, music, have been migrating out of California chasing these tax incentives. This has cost the state thousands of jobs not only in the entertainment industry but in all the business all around that support us," she added.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is trying to stop the bleeding. He has proposed bumping up the state’s filming tax credit from $330 million to a hefty $750 million. Two state bills backing this effort—both championed by Allen and Zbur—are also in the pipeline.

Still, even they admit this isn’t the silver bullet. “We know that it will take more work beyond the tax incentives to sustainably revitalize LA’s entertainment economy,” the Stay in LA group said.