After cars and flea, US President Donald Trump announced his desire to expand his all -round trade war on Sunday at the cinema, with a 100 % tax on foreign films. “The American film industry is dying very quickly […] Hollywood and many other regions of the United States are devastated ”justified Donald Trump on his Truth Social network. “Other countries offer all kinds of incentives to attract our filmmakers and studios away from the United States”he assured. According to him, it is a “Concerted effort on the part of other nations”representative “A threat to national security”.
So he said “Immediately start the process of establishing customs duties of 100 %» On the films broadcast in the United States but produced abroad. “We want movies made in America”wrote the president. His commercial secretary, Howard Lungick, assured on the social networks that he was dealing with it.
Donald Trump has opened several investigations to the White House since his return to the White House “Effects on national security” Of various imports, ranging from semiconductors to crucial minerals. This survey is a necessary first step which could allow the American president to publish an imposing decree of customs duties on these products, if it is shown that their import volume represents a risk to national security.
No details have yet been given on the conditions for applying surcharge on films produced abroad. Donald Trump speaking in his publications only of films, it is not clear if American measures would also affect television series or broadcast on online streaming platforms – an increasingly important and profitable vector.
This is a new escalation in the commercial offensive launched by the American president against the economic partners of the United States. China, against which Donald Trump concentrates a large part of his arrows, announced in early April that it was going to reduce, “Moderately”the number of American films officially broadcast on its territory, one of its responses to the prohibitive customs duties imposed by the United States on its products.
Beijing limits, by a system of quotas, the number of foreign films officially broadcast in its cinemas. A reduction in access to this market, the second in the world behind the United States for cinema, could cut the recipes of Hollywood studios.
Hollywood generated some 279 billion dollars in turnover in 2022 and represents some 2.3 million jobs, according to the latest figures from the US interprofessional association MPA. The American cinema sector is surplus, exporting 3.1 times more value than imports, according to the same source.
But this emblematic American industry is in crisis – between the historic strikes that paralyzed Hollywood for several months in 2023 and the upheavals linked to streaming.
The United States remains one of the main filming destinations with $ 14.5 billion in production spending in 2024, according to the analysis of the Prodpro office, but this figure is down 26 % over two years. Hollywood is subjected to competition from countries like Thailand, Hungary or South Africa, which offer attractive tax advantages to turn there. Many films are also shot in several countries.
California only arrives at the sixth position of a recent survey of studios managers on their favorite filming places for 2025 and 2026. Before his inauguration, Donald Trump had symbolically appointed actors Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight and Mel Gibson, long -standing support, “Ambassadors” in Hollywood to be “(S) Es Eyes et (s) es ears” In a mostly pro -democratic cinema industry.
Many of music and cinema stars openly opposed Donald Trump, like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen and George Clooney who supported Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris.
