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Topics: Donald Trump, Tariffs, Truth Social, Film and TV, Money, World News
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Donald Trump, Tariffs, Truth Social, Film and TV, Money, World News
Donald Trump has announced a 100 percent tariff on an industry he said is 'dying' and has been 'stolen from the United States'.
Some four months after first 'ordering' the move, the president says it's finally been imposed - and it will have a major impact of the rest of the world.
The industry in question? Trump is targeting 'any and all' movies made outside of the United States with an eye-watering new tariff.
Taking to social media site Truth Social on Monday (September 29), he said: "Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing 'candy from a baby.'"
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He then issued a scathing blow to Hollywood and the so-called Golden State, adding: "California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit! 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."
He signed the post off with his now-trademark phrase: "Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT."
Back in May, Trump took to the same platform to share his concerns - claiming it was a national security matter.
Worried that the industry is 'DYING a very fast death,' he added: "Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated."
Calling it a ‘concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat’, Trump went on to claim that there is also ‘propaganda’ within the movies' messaging.
So, to tackle this ‘threat’, he said he was ‘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’.
While Trump has confirmed the imposing of tariffs on foreign films coming into the US, he has not yet set out exactly how this would work.
Nor has he said whether he would also impose tariffs on American production companies producing films abroad.
It's also not known how this will all impact Netflix, which, of course, produces films all over the world.
Or how about the cinema industry, which shows films in the US and in Europe and beyond?
Earlier this year, China said it was reducing the number of American films allowed into the country in retaliation to Trump imposing a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
“The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience's favorability towards American films,” the China Film Administration said.
“We will follow the market rules, respect the audience's choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.”