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'Very dangerous escalation': Trump enrages and baffles experts with his latest threat

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
David McAfee
May 04, 2025

Donald Trump on Sunday called for tariffs to be implemented on movies filmed in foreign locations, leading observers to question and criticize the move.

"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 over the weekend. "Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated."

Trump then ordered the imposition of a stated "100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands."

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Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski said on social media, "Deranged Trump is now putting a 100% tariff on movies made outside the US."

That led podcaster Brett Meiselas to chime in:

"As someone who has worked in Hollywood I legitimately have no idea what this even means or how it would even be implemented," he said on X. "I assume it’d be a tariff on production costs, which if so, would totally screw the industry. And then retaliatory action from other counties would just kill whatever is left of it at that point."

Republicans against Trump said, "Donald Trump says he will impose 100% tariffs on all movies produced outside the United States. Trump’s ridiculous obsession with tariffs is wrecking the economy."

"Now more than ever, Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority over tariffs," the group added.

Justin Wolfers, an economist and professor, responded to that statement, adding, "If Trump is serious about tariffs on movies, it's a very dangerous escalation."

"Tariffs have not traditionally been applied to services, and the United States is a massive net exporter of services," Wolfers added. "We would be extremely vulnerable to any service-based retaliation."

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