President Trump renewed his threat to tariff films made overseas on Monday, but also suggested that he would offer “low-interest bonds” to help stimulate domestic production.
In an interview with the New York Post, the president did not explain his proposal but indicated he is still considering the decline in production.
“I want to bring the movie business back to Los Angeles in particular,” he said.
Hollywood unions and producers have been lobbying the administration for a year to create a federal film incentive to compete with similar production incentives in the U.K., Canada and elsewhere. Such subsidies are structured as tax credits or rebates that create a steep discount on production costs in particular territories — and not as loans that would have to be paid back.
Trump has twice threatened to impose a 100% tariff on films made abroad, though without explaining how that would work, or what legal authority would allow it.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote on Truth Social in May, threatening to movies made in “foreign lands” and setting off a mild panic among filmmakers who work overseas. But when he reiterated the tariff threat in September, the industry responded with a collective shrug.
“It’s just hot air again,” one producer told Variety.
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Trump’s initial threat followed a meeting with actor Jon Voight, whom he had named as one of three “special ambassadors” to Hollywood. Voight and two producer friends, Steven Paul and Scott Karol, developed a plan for the industry that included federal incentives, deductions and tariffs, among other ideas.
Trump has previously endorsed only the tariff idea, but discussed bonds as well in the interview with the new California Post offshoot of the New York Post, which launched Monday.
“And so I’m going to put tariffs on and we’re going to be doing bonds, some bonds, some low-interest bonds, for the movie industry. We’ll bring it back,” he told the Post.
Sen. Adam Schiff and others in Congress have worked on the idea of establishing a federal production incentive. California Gov. Gavin Newsom last year expanded the state’s tax credit for production to $750 million, and challenged Trump to support a federal incentive that would be 10 times as large.
Hollywood unions have praised Trump’s attention to the issue, but sought to redirect his interest to a more limited goal of extending and reauthorizing federal tax deductions that assist producers.
The Motion Picture Association declined to comment.
From Variety US