“President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the country, saying the American movie industry was dying a ‘very fast death’ due to the incentives that other countries were offering to lure filmmakers. ‘This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda,’ Trump said on Truth Social.” Reuters

‍“[On Monday] Trump said he would ask Hollywood studios if ‘they’re happy’ with his proposal to impose tariffs… ‘I’m not looking to hurt the industry, I want to help the industry,’ Trump told reporters at the White House. ‘So we’re going to meet with the industry,’ he said. ‘I want to make sure they’re happy with it because we’re all about jobs.’ White House spokesman Kush Desai said that ‘no final decision on foreign film tariffs have been made.’” CNB‍C

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‍‍Many on both sides are critical of the proposed tariffs:

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‍“So now we have national emergencies over 1) fentanyl that is not coming over our border with Canada, 2) a trade deficit that we have lived with for decades, and 3) a supposed conspiracy by other countries to destroy our film industry… The U.S. currently runs a trade surplus on its entertainment exports, so if Hollywood gets hit with retaliatory tariffs, it’s going to create yet another shockwave for our economy.”

‍Jay Kuo, Status Kuo

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‍“Los Angeles film productions have declined in recent years so naturally, rather than creating incentives for more US shoots in the heart of the American film industry, Trump figures the best way to go about it is make it more expensive to shoot elsewhere. As with the idea that the US will simply materialize entire manufacturing industries if foreign goods prove too expensive, both the financial and creative reality of the situation is far more complicated…

“While many big productions are lured away from Los Angeles by tax credits in England or Australia, and plenty of lower-budget movies shoot in less populated countries overseas to keep costs down, some of the Los Angeles downturn comes from movies shooting elsewhere within the United States. Atlanta, for example, has become a major production hub in recent years…

“[Moreover] shooting in other countries isn’t (always) just a matter of (only) saving money. After all, the last couple of Mission: Impossible and James Bond movies shot all over the world, and were mind-bogglingly expensive. These movies follow the rich tradition of giving audiences a look at landscapes and cities that they may not be able to visit themselves… Gathering locations from around the world has been a feature of big-budget film-making for decades.”

‍Jesse Hassenger, The Guardian

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‍“Movie magic sometimes requires shooting on locations that just cannot be replicated in the U.S. Many classic Hollywood films were shot at least in part in foreign locales, including Lawrence of Arabia in Jordan and [Morocco], the Godfather films in Sicily and the Dominican Republic, To Catch a Thief on the French Riviera, the Lord of the Rings films in New Zealand, and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films shooting in Tunisia and other foreign spots.”

‍Dan McLaughlin, National Review

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‍“Let's face it, if Trump is right that the studios are being killed these days, it has nothing to do with foreign competition… The problem is that American movies have sucked eggs for the past few years, both because the studios have run out of good ideas and because the few ideas they have are themselves unwelcome woke propaganda that Americans are rejecting in droves. The market is sending a big message to Hollywood. Chinese competition is not the problem…

“The one area in which foreign governments have inordinate influence is something no tariff can address: studios, being dependent on foreign viewers for much of their profits, are afraid to offend countries like China. Foreign governments pressure studios to avoid topics that undermine their domestic propaganda. Remember the controversy about Top Gun removing the Taiwanese flag on Maverick's jacket?…

“The studio hid the flag to ensure it could access hundreds of millions of moviegoers in China. To add insult to injury, Chinese company Tencent was an investor in the movie. Top Gun's producers restored the flag, lost the investor, and the movie wasn't released in China. It's the American studios, chasing the Chinese market, who are inserting propaganda or failing to criticize China at times, and that is a problem that tariffs can't address.”

‍David Strom, Hot Air‍

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‍Other opinions below.