Hours after President Donald Trump’s threatened to impose “a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” the White House backtracked on the idea.
Trump baffled the film industry and panicked Wall Street with a post on Truth Social on Sunday night in which he 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!”
He added: “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!”
Trump’s Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, responded on X: “We’re on it.”
But on Monday, White House spokesman Kush Desai rolled back Trump’s Truth Social statement: “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,” Desai told The Hollywood Reporter.
Monday morning, before markets opened, and before the Desai clarified Trump’s statement, shares in Netflix were the hardest hit among major entertainment industry stocks — they were down more than 5 percent. By the end of the day, they recovered somewhat, and were down 1.94%. Shares in Warner Bros. Discovery were down 1.99% Monday, Paramount shares were down 1.57%, and Disney shares slipped .41%.
“If this is deployed on a wide scale, it may end up harming the very industry it is supposed to help,” Barclays analysts wrote in a research note about the movie tariffs.
Trump presented the tariffs as a salve to Hollywood, which has lost business in recent years to places like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain and Serbia because of tax incentives, cheaper production costs, or a combination of both.
But few in the film industry — which is famously hostile to Trump — welcomed the tariffs idea.
Also Read: The Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker in 2025
The Trump Movie Tariff Plan Lacks Detail
Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have roiled small businesses, large industries, and global trade this year as he has imposed and lifted (or temporarily lifted) various tariffs with no predictability. Now it’s Hollywood’s turn in the barrel.
Trump’s announcement didn’t address the fact that many films are international productions, with some scenes shot on a soundstage in Los Angeles, exteriors shot on another continent, and VFX handled in Vancouver.
Many immediate questions arose, as happens when Trump introduces policies (or proposed policies) via social media posts. Among them:
— Will the tariffs be for films produced wholly overseas? Or also on films that shoot a few scenes overseas?
— Would the tariffs affect TV shows, like Squid Game and HBO”s Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon? Or just films?
— Who would pay the tariffs? Would audiences see a massive increase in their ticket prices or streaming bills?
— Is this, like so many Trump announcements, just an opening gambit in a negotiation?
The tariff questions comes at a grim time for Hollywood, which is already suffering from the strikes last year and the Los Angeles fires in January. Trump placed the blame with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a Sunday appearance on C-SPAN, in which he was asked about the tariffs.
“I’ve done some very strong research over the past week, and we’re making very few movies now. Hollywood is being destroyed. Now, you have a… grossly incompetent governor that allowed that to happen, so I’m not just blaming other nations, but other nations have stolen our movie industry,” Trump said.
One Newsom spokesman went legalistic in response, telling Deadline: “We believe he has no authority to impose tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, since tariffs are not listed as a remedy under that law.”
Another Newsom rep simply told THR: “Looks like it’s distraction day again in Washington, D.C.”
Main image: Donald Trump in Home Alone 2. 20th Century Studios
Editor’s Note: Updates throughout with White House statement, stocks down.