What Does Trump’s Insane “100% Tariff” on “Foreign Movies” Even Mean?

More than 100 days into his presidency, Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war is coming to a theater near you. On Sunday, Trump announced his intention to put a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the United States, writing on Truth Social that the movie industry is dying a “very fast death” because of financial incentives offered by other countries to American productions.

Trump said he is authorizing a tax on “any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” adding that any outsourcing beyond American soil “is a concerted effort by other Nations, and, therefore, a National Security threat.” He concluded: “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”

Though Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick issued a quick reply on X—“We’re on it”—it was not immediately clear how such a tariff would be implemented, on which productions it could be enforced, or exactly what part of the moviemaking process would be taxed. “Can’t see his target here other than confusion and distraction,” a US distribution executive told Deadline.

Would American distributors be taxed when they acquire foreign titles, or only when American productions shoot overseas? Are streaming-only productions and TV series exempt from such a tax? Will upcoming summer blockbusters like Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning and Jurassic World Rebirth, both filmed primarily in other countries, be somehow subject to retroactive taxes? Given the 1988 Berman Amendment, which Trump cited in his first major tariff announcement in early April, can movies even legally be taxed? And, like Trump’s other sweeping tariffs on global goods, would levies make tickets to foreign films more expensive?

Amid the flurry of uncertainties surrounding Trump’s plan, The Wall Street Journal reports that stocks in Netflix, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery fell on Monday. Countries including Australia and New Zealand have vowed their continued support for American productions that film in those countries. And California governor Gavin Newsom, who has expressed his interest in doubling his state’s offering of film and TV tax incentives, has had his staff speak out against the president. “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,” Newsom senior adviser for communications Bob Salladay told Deadline on Sunday.

It’s true that in recent years, fewer films have indeed been produced solely in the US. Hollywood has increasingly relied on work done in so-called “Foreign Lands” to combat rising labor costs and reap overseas tax credits. As the Times reported, “According to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, roughly 18,000 full-time American film industry jobs have been eliminated in the past three years, primarily in California.” And the industry has yet to fully recover from the dual actors and writers strikes in 2023. A recent report from FilmLA says that shooting in LA decreased more than 22% for the three-month period from January to March 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024, per The Hollywood Reporter.

But the film industry is also one of America’s most lucrative service-sector exports. According to the latest economic impact report from the Motion Picture Association, which represents major studios, Hollywood “generated a positive U.S. balance of trade in every major market in the world.” (A rep for the organization declined to comment to Vanity Fair.) Enhanced tax credits for US-based productions seem like a better way to incentivize local filming than putting penalties on productions that involve other countries.

“He will kill the U.S. industry quicker as this will increase the cost of U.S. films that already weren’t selling well internationally,” a veteran French distributor told Deadline. “Creating an incentive for shooting in the U.S. would have been smarter, but I’m not sure he has that much intelligence.”

Even before his latest proclamation, Trump’s trade war with China has wreaked havoc on the film business. Just last month, China said it would “moderately reduce” the number of Hollywood films allowed into its theaters. Further tariffs would shrink “the entire global market,” someone from a leading US film company, who works on both domestic and international productions, recently told Deadline. “We won’t be able to make movies for the same budgets, actors won’t get paid the same fees and the list goes on. Simply, it would destroy the independent sector.”

Destruction is also a word on Trump’s lips. Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Sunday night, he said that “other nations have been stealing the moviemaking capabilities from the United States.” Referring to “very strong research” he’d done over the past week, Trump claimed that “Hollywood is being destroyed.”

Who is behind such invaluable research? The answer might just be Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, who has recently been spotted taking private meetings around Hollywood with various studios and guilds, Deadline reports. Voight “is the instigator of the president’s sudden interest in film production,” several sources told The Hollywood Reporter.

At the start of his second term, Trump appointed Voight, as well as his fellow Trump supporters Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, as “special ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood California.” The actors, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”

In a statement provided to Vanity Fair at the time, a representative for Gibson said that the actor found out about his appointment via Trump’s social media post. “I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised,” Gibson said in a statement. “Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can. Any chance the position comes with an ambassador’s residence?”

It remains to be seen what role, if any, this trio will play in potential tariffs against international films. Vanity Fair has reached out to reps for Gibson, Stallone, and Voight for comment.

For now, the White House is playing the wait-and-see game regarding any tariff implementation. “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 spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Monday.