The White House is still brainstorming how to deliver on President Donald Trump’s plan to impose 100% tariffs on films produced in foreign countries. Some California Democrats say it would only bring chaos to the industry.
“The Trump administration has done a lot of crazy things, and so that’s why when he says something crazy, you can’t just dismiss it out of hand,” Rep. Ted Lieu told NOTUS.
On Sunday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would start the process to tax all “Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” He also said, without much explanation, that movies produced outside the U.S. pose a threat to national security.
Even after the stocks of multiple media companies fell sharply on Monday, Trump doubled down on the tariff idea, telling reporters in the Oval Office he would meet with film industry leaders to get them on board.
White House aides say that this policy is still in an exploratory phase.
“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,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told NOTUS in an email.
Some Democrats did chalk up Trump’s threat as noise.
“This is just pure chaos for this administration,” Rep. Derek Tran, who represents part of Los Angeles, told NOTUS. “There is no focus, they’re just trying to say tariffs on this one day, tariffs on something else another day. It’s insane.”
While most California congressional Democrats to whom NOTUS spoke were skeptical about Trump’s measure, Rep. Lauren Friedman — a Democratic freshman whose district houses much of Hollywood — welcomed the attention that the Trump administration brought to the industry and asked the president to consider a more targeted approach.
“I appreciate that the administration is recognizing that we have a crisis of losing one of our signature industries from the United States,” Friedman told NOTUS. “I personally don’t understand how a tariff would work for film or intellectual property, but I do know that a film tax credit would work because it’s worked in California.
“I would love to work with the administration on having a national film tax credit,” she added.
Multiple outlets reported that Trump’s proposal came right after the president met with actor Jon Voight in Mar-a-Lago. The actor, who has long been a Trump supporter and was tapped as special envoy to Hollywood by the administration, reportedly met with Trump to discuss ways to boost the domestic TV and film industry.
“I mean, tariffs work on goods, I’m not sure how they work on movies, you know?” Rep. Scott Peters told NOTUS. “All the moviemaking around the world helps Americans, actors and crews. So I think it’s just another ridiculous, political thing.”
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
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