Trump's Tariffs on the Film Industry
It’s one of Donald Trump’s superpowers that whenever we imagine his policies couldn’t get any more outrageous and confusing, he makes another move no-one saw coming. The only consistent aspect is a desire to punish someone he perceives as an enemy. With his proposed 100% tariffs on American films being “produced in Foreign Lands” (the caps are his), he is striking a blow against a Hollywood film industry that has been slow to appreciate his stable genius. He can’t be pleased that leading actors such as George Clooney and Meryl Streep have come out strongly for the Democrats. Every American movie nowadays seems to be packed with Trump references – subtle or overt, but invariably unflattering.
If the Australian film industry suffers it will be collateral damage alongside the greater goal of making the Hollywood studios kowtow to his will, as he sets out to “save” them.
Typically, Trump frames his latest announcement as a national crisis – “other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States.” Shock, horror! “Hollywood, and many other areas within the USA are being devastated.” It’s nothing short of “a National Security threat.”