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Donald Trump slaps 100% tariff on foreign films
Times of India - English / VideoElephant
Despite his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on global trade last month – most of which he later paused for 90 days - triggering an economic crisis, US president Donald Trump has once again used one of his favourite words and announced a 100 per cent tariff on movies from “foreign lands”.
Taking to Truth Social on Sunday (4 May) to announce the decision, Trump claimed his country’s film industry is “dying a very fast death” and that other nations are “offering all sorts of incentives” to draw filmmakers and studios away from the US.
He wrote: “Hollywood, and many other areas within the USA, are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!
“Therefore, I am 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.
“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Trump later expanded upon his Truth Social post in comments to reporters, making the bizarre accusation that other countries are “stealing the movies”.
He also claimed these nations are stealing “moviemaking capabilities” from the US.
Trump said: “I’m doing some very strong research over the last week. We’re making very few movies now; Hollywood is being destroyed.
“Other nations – a lot of them – have stolen our movie industry, and if they’re not willing to make movies inside the United States then we should have a tariff on movies that come in.
“It is a very popular thing, I can tell you one thing. Moviemakers love it.”
It’s not clear what evidence Trump has to back up his claim that filmmakers are supportive of his latest tariffs, but it’s obvious that Twitter/X users aren’t happy about it.
One account compared the comments to Trump’s infamous election claim – a baseless one - that Haitian migrants are “eating the dogs” and cats in Springfield:
The president’s comments about doing “some very strong research” was also met with ridicule:
And another cast doubt on the idea that Hollywood is struggling, joking that it has just released “400 sequels and 9 superhero reboots”:
Trump’s movie comments came on the same day as ‘Star Wars Day’, which his White House decided to celebrate by posting an AI-generated image of the president wielding a lightsaber to social media.
Yes, this is actually happening in the US right now…
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