Four months after initially threatening a 100% tariff on U.S. films that are produced in other countries other than the United States, President Donald Trump further advanced the plan by announcing his solution to the “never-ending problem” that is allegedly killing Hollywood.
“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’ California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never-ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”
“Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” he concluded.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office responded with a statement on X: “The Governor tried to explain this to Trump months ago — when this was initially proposed — that his actions will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. film industry. Today’s move is 100% stupid.”
TOM CRUISE SHUTS DOWN TRUMP MOVIE TARIFF QUESTION WHILE PROMOTING ‘MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’
When it comes to the future of Hollywood, Steve Honig, founder of the Honig Company, told Fox News Digital that the once glamorous home of filmmaking has truly “lost itself.”
“Unfortunately, Hollywood, and the entire metropolitan Los Angeles area, has been dying a slow death for several years now as far as runaway production goes,” said Honig. “The cost of living and doing business in the area has become beyond cost-prohibitive, with other parts of the country and the world offering a lot more for a lot less.”
“The problem is not limited to just Southern California but rather the entire state,” he continued. “While the current administration has tried to increase tax incentives for productions, it hasn’t been enough to really move the needle very much. In addition to losing business, Hollywood has found itself with a reputation problem.”
“The Los Angeles area has become synonymous with high-costs and low-value among people in the industry, in particular the decision-makers,” he added. “This is going to be a tough issue to remedy because the problem goes a lot deeper than just tax incentives; it plays into the very soul of the city. Hollywood has lost itself in bad politics and economics.”
Doug Eldridge, founder of Achilles PR, says that Hollywood is not dead yet, but if the industry continues on this trajectory, a “call to hospice is not far away.”
“Why? Because of the decentralization of the creative process over the last 40 years. If you rewind the tape, the reason they called so many of those Clint Eastwood movies ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ is because it was cheaper to film in Italy–as well as southeastern Spain–than it was in Hollywood, or the Midwest, like most of the iconic John Wayne films, just 10-20 years earlier.”
“Over the last couple of decades, Tinsel Town has lost its centralized strangle hold on movie-making, much in the same way that Detroit was unceremoniously dethroned as the auto-production capital of the world: tax breaks, cheaper labor, lack of union over-regulation, and advantageous incentives, all of which rendered Detroit a non-viable, cost-prohibitive option,” Eldridge said.
He explained that in recent years, other states have made moves to pull the movie industry out of California.
“Let me qualify that. In recent years, states like Texas and Georgia have taken aggressive measures to lure studio production away from the Golden State, in favor of more dollar-stretching climates. Georgia created a 20% tax credit, with an additional 10% credit on top of that, if producers used the Georgia peach logo in the end credits. Similarly, Texas has committed $1.5 billion in tax credits over the next decade, to producers who choose to film in remote, rural, locations across the state and are willing to utilize Texas residents in the production,” he said.
Eldridge continued, “By contrast, California has become increasingly stringent: economically (escalating tax brackets), lack of incentives, and a post-Covid environment and economy that has never rebounded to a sense of normalcy, post-pandemic. At the end of the day, Hollywood producers face the same reality as the rest of America: where can you stretch your dollar the farthest—Bergdorf’s or Walmart? At a certain point, the discussion and decision becomes purely economical. California better have ‘movie-making hospice’ on speed-dial, because the outlook isn’t good.”
In May, Trump wrote that 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 said. “Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.”
The president said that the situation was a “concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.”
“It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” Trump wrote.
“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Trump concluded.
Trump’s tariff idea has sparked a response from various celebrities.
Earlier this month, Academy Award-winning actor Mel Gibson — who is currently in Italy filming “The Resurrection of the Christ” — admitted the industry in Los Angeles is “dying.”
“It was cheaper, more cost-effective to fly the entire American crew, buy them air tickets, fly them to Bulgaria, house them, feed them for three days, and do the shooting there for three days, rather than to just shoot for one day locally in Los Angeles where they all lived,” Gibson told News Nation.
Earlier this year, Rob Lowe took aim at the management within California when it comes to in-state filming and production.
“There are no tax credits, so like, all those other places are offering 40% — 40%. And then on top of that, there’s other stuff that they do,” Lowe said in conversation with his former “Parks and Recreation” co-star Adam Scott in March, per The Wrap. “And then, that’s not even talking about union stuff. It’s just tax, economics of it all, so it’s criminal what California and L.A. have let happen — it’s criminal. Everybody should be fired.”
“It’s cheaper to bring 100 American people to Ireland than to walk across the lot, Fox, past the sound stages and do it there,” Lowe said of filming his TV show, “The Floor.”
Josh Duhamel said actors need to have more “incentives” to continue working in Hollywood.
“I think that we need to make it more conducive. Right now, there are so many obstacles to getting it done,” the actor recently told Variety. “I just directed a movie in London called ‘Preschool.’ It’s about two dads who are fighting to get their kid into this last spot in this super high-end, pretentious preschool. It was originally scripted to take place in Malibu, but we couldn’t shoot it there. It was just too expensive.”
“We rejiggered it for London and made it more like a Hogwarts-y style 500-year-old preschool that’s highly revered. It’s become so cost-prohibitive on so many different fronts, and I’m all for the unions, but it just balloons your budget. We have to figure out a way to bring it back because I have a lot of friends who are having a hard time finding work,” he added.
In May, Whoopi Goldberg stood firm against her support for the initiative.
WATCH: Whoopi Goldberg unloads on President Trump’s proposed Hollywood tariffs during ‘The View’
“Okay, look, you can’t do that, because what that equates to is, you’re going to tell me how to write the story I want to write if it happens in Europe,” Goldberg said during an episode of “The View.” “Look, could you please lower the price of eggs before you start this?”
“When you go over to another country to work, you work with the people who are there. We don’t import our folks to go over there. Who are you going to put this tariff on? The production? The studio? What are you talking about?”
Fox News Digital’s Larry Fink and Janelle Ash contributed to this report
