On Sunday evening, and seemingly out of the blue, Downmarket Mussolini took to his personal social media site to announce a 100% tariff on all movies "produced in a foreign land." Nobody really has a clue why Trump did this, nobody really knows how such a tariff would actually work, and various experts and observers in both US politics and the film industry are busy theorizing what the Klepto Kaiser is actually trying to accomplish here.

https://archive.ph/0Tm6p

Trump Says He’s Instituting a “100 Percent Tariff” on Films Produced Outside of the U.S. Because the “Movie Industry in America Is Dying”

“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote. “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. 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!”

So what's going on inside Trump's lizard brain here? The list of theorized motivations is lengthy indeed; some have posited that it's a political distraction, part of his growing political battle with California Governor and 2028 Dem nomination hopeful Gavin Newsom, or a genuine attempt to force Hollywood studios to "re-shore" film production in America, among numerous other possible motivations. Based purely on the unhinged winger conspiracy tone of Trump's post, I'd just as easily be inclined to assume he saw a Daily Wire segment on "woke" movie studios and decided he had to "take action on this" like Silvio from the Sopranos on Columbus Day.

As for how such a tariff would actually work; that's just as big a mystery. Given the international and collaborative nature of modern filmmaking, it's actually quite hard to figure out what constitutes a "film made in a foreign land." Furthermore, the entire structure of our streaming service-focused entertainment industry makes it unclear how you'd even collect such a tariff. The most obvious targets in Trump's sights are probably subsidies from foreign governments film studios collect for filming in those countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/05/trumps-movie-tariffs-are-designed-to-destroy-the-international-film-industry

Trump’s movie tariffs are designed to destroy the international film industry

"The current thinking is that Trump’s most realistic option is to levy a tariff on any financial packages a film receives from a foreign government, rather than tax cinema tickets or streaming subscriptions. However, the effect of any tariff is likely to be dramatic."

Regardless of what Trump is trying to accomplish here, or how his proposed tariffs would work however, the expert consensus is that far from restoring the American movie industry, the Klepto Kaiser's tariff might literally destroy it.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/donald-trump-film

Film Insiders Say Trump's Proposed Hollywood Tariffs Would 'Destroy' Entertainment Industry

"This is NOT the effect this is going to have," one industry professional told Deadline. "It will make low- and mid-level productions completely unproducable, hence destroying many jobs from producer assistants to writers to post-production. Further, it will lessen the amount of big budget content created because the studios won't be able to make as much because the cost of production will be more."

An official at a top U.S. film company that produces movies both domestically and internationally told Deadline that international film distributors will be less likely to buy U.S. films under Trump's new tariff plan.

"It affects domestic distribution deals but it also impacts equity players who have money in movies because their films will suddenly be worth less money," they said. "We won't be able to make movies for the same budgets, actors won't get paid the same fees, and the list goes on. Simply, it would destroy the independent sector."

I can't pretend to know what's going on in the grizzled ball of hamburger Trump calls a brain, but it's hard for me not to think the destruction may indeed be the point. This is a fascist regime, that has already been making moves to seize control of every cultural institution in American life and repurpose them towards agreeing with and disseminating fascist propaganda. These guys are going after historical websites and Smithsonian exhibits to promote a white nationalist headcage, you can sure as shit bet that they want to influence Hollywood movies for the same purpose. Trump has no control over an international film industry; if he wants to censor the movies, they will have to be made here. Which may well be why he's trying to force movie studios to come home.