The US president pledged a 100 percent tariff for films made outside the country.
Published On 29 Sep 2025
United States President Donald Trump has said he wants to levy a 100 percent import tax on movies made outside the country, saying the movie business “has been stolen” from Hollywood and the US.
Posting on his Truth Social platform on Monday, the US president said the tariff was intended to “solve this long time, never ending problem.”
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“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby,’” he wrote.
“California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!”, he added, in reference to California governor Gavin Newsom, who is a common foil of Trump’s.
It was unclear how these tariffs would operate, since movies and TV shows can be transmitted digitally without going through ports.
Nor was it clear what this would mean for US films that depend on foreign locations as part of the story, such as the James Bond franchise.
Analysts note that many films are international co-productions. They are also not goods that are imported in a conventional way, meaning the government would have to determine how to value them and when they even qualify as imports.
Trump made a similar threat in May, directing the Department of Commerce to immediately begin imposing a 100 percent tariff on films “produced in Foreign Lands”.
At the time, he complained the US film industry was “DYING a very fast death” due to other countries luring filmmakers and studios away with generous incentives, describing it as a national security threat.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency on how the tariffs would be implemented.
“There is too much uncertainty, and this latest move raises more questions than answers,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.
“For now, as things stand, costs are likely to increase, and this will inevitably be passed on to consumers,” he said.
The president on Monday, on his same social media platform, also promised “substantial” tariffs on any country that makes its furniture outside the US.
He said he was doing so to make the state of North Carolina “GREAT again”, saying it had “completely lost its furniture business to China, and other Countries”.
