White House walks back Trump's big Hollywood tariff announcement

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Updated May 5, 2025, 1:00 p.m. ET


The White House appeared to walk back an announcement by President Donald Trump that he would slap 100% tariffs on foreign-produced films to boost Hollywood. A White House statement on May 5 said that "no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made" after Trump's declaration made waves in the entertainment industry.

Trump posted on social media May 4 that he was "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." The president said he was concerned incentives luring filmmakers overseas will send the American movie industry to "a very fast death."

Although Trump said his team was moving forward on the tariffs, White House spokesman Kush Desai seemed to walk that back in the May 5 statement, while also saying " 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."

The statement added more confusion to an announcement that already was drawing questions about how the tariffs would be implemented and what exactly they would apply to. It was unclear if the tariffs would apply to movies on streaming services as well as those shown in theaters, or if they would be calculated based on production costs or box office revenue. The Motion Picture Association, which represents the major studios, had no comment.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/05/trump-announces-tariff-on-foreign-films/83452190007/

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LOL I was wondering how one could figure this out. It's not like you have shiploads or planeloads of film canisters coming in. Many movies are filmed "on location" around the world and although some may still use actual film, much of the stuff is digital now (or at least converted to digital).

But see every time he does this, the media does a "butter emails" with a "ButBiden 'cognitive'" while completely ignoring the raving lunatic currently at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.