Can Donald Trump really put a tariff on films?

After slamming everything from clothing to avocados with tariffs, now President Donald Trump has taken aim at films. "The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death," Trump proclaimed on Truth Social last week, while floating a 100 percent tariff on movies "produced in Foreign Lands." The news stirred up confusion across Hollywood, […]

May 10, 2025 - 16:21

Can Donald Trump really put a tariff on films?

After slamming everything from clothing to avocados with tariffs, now President Donald Trump has taken aim at films. "The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death," Trump proclaimed on Truth Social last week, while floating a 100 percent tariff on movies "produced in Foreign Lands."

The news stirred up confusion across Hollywood, as it would seemingly apply to a broad range of films, maybe even US films with scenes shot abroad. Though Trump has already begun to reel his original statement back in, as he told CNBC that he's "not looking to hurt the industry," it doesn't seem like he's given up on the idea completely. But like many of Trump's plans, he's relying on presidential powers that are stretched to a breaking point.

"A car has a value when it arrives at a US port that they can slap a tariff on," says Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University. "But because of the way the film industry works, it'd be much tougher to determine what proportion of the film you would actually apply a tariff to."

Trump's tariff plan appears to have spun out of a meeting with actor Jon Voight, a fervent Trump supporter who has been appointed a "special ambassado …

Read the full story at The Verge.