Donald Trump has declared war on Hollywood’s overseas exodus.
In a fiery post on Truth Social shared on May 5, the POTUS sounded the alarm over what he called the “very fast death” of the American movie industry, blaming foreign countries for poaching U.S. filmmakers with tempting incentives.
“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.
Calling the situation a “National Security threat,” Trump said the decline of U.S.-based movie production is more than just bad business—it’s propaganda.
“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
With that, he unveiled his plan: a full-blown tariff assault.
“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!”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was quick to back the move, posting simply: “We’re on it.”
But beyond the rallying cry, details remain murky. The administration hasn’t clarified whether the tariffs would hit films released via streaming services or just theatrical releases — or how they would even be calculated. Production costs? Box office revenue? No one knows.
Industry heads scrambled to understand the potential fallout. The Motion Picture Association - which represents major studios like Disney, Netflix, and Universal - has remained quiet as of this writing, per Reuters.
What’s clear is that Hollywood has been bleeding productions for years.
With countries like Canada and the UK dangling massive tax incentives, film and TV shoots have flooded overseas. Australia hosted Marvel blockbusters, while New Zealand famously served as Middle-earth in the Lord of the Rings series.
In fact, global governments are going hard after their share of a booming pie — $248 billion in production spend is expected worldwide in 2025, according to Ampere Analysis.
But Trump’s move has sparked backlash abroad.
In the UK, media union Bectu said the proposed tariffs “could deal a knock-out blow to an industry that is only just recovering.” Philippa Childs, head of Bectu, warned they would jeopardize tens of thousands of freelance film jobs in the UK.
“These tariffs, coming after COVID and the recent slowdown, could deal a knock-out blow to an industry that is only just recovering,” she said, per Sky News.
And Britain isn’t alone in worrying. Leaders in Australia and New Zealand said they would fight to protect their local industries.
Despite Trump’s call to bring film jobs home, the U.S. has consistently exported billions in entertainment. In 2023, American movies raked in $22.6 billion in exports and netted a $15.3 billion surplus.
But that’s not stopping Trump from using tariffs as a political hammer.
This latest push follows an earlier announcement of a 10% baseline tariff on all goods from foreign nations, which included a brutal 145% hike on Chinese products. He’s also recently called for the reopening of Alcatraz to house violent criminals, using Truth Social as his go-to megaphone for major policy shifts.
It’s not the first time Trump has gone Hollywood. Back in January, he appointed a trio of silver-screen tough guys — Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone, and Mel Gibson — as his cultural clean-up crew to make Hollywood “bigger, better and stronger than ever before.”
Still, questions loom. What happens to hybrid productions like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, filmed partly in the US and partly abroad? Will tariffs force studios to reshape their entire workflow — or just push more underground deals?
And with stocks for Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount, and Amazon all dipping on the news, the market clearly isn’t taking the announcement lightly.
Hollywood has battled strikes, wildfires, and a pandemic. Now it’s facing a new threat: a tariff war launched from social media.