Donald Trump’s plan to slap 100 percent tariff on movies made outside the United States was apparently the brain child of actor Jon Voight.
According to Politico Voight, who was named one of Trump’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood earlier this year alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, came up with the idea and pitched it to him.
A source close the White House also confirmed that the policy came from Voight. Ben Allen, a California state senator from the Los Angeles area who’s active in the world of Hollywood tax credits, also said he heard about the possibility of tariffs from Voight several days before Trump’s announced it in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” Trump 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!” he continued. “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!”
But, producer Randy Greenberg said Sunday that these tariffs would hurt, not help Hollywood.
“This will have the opposite effect. It will kill the Movie industry faster. If you have to shoot in Thailand or Sydney or the UK, because that’s where the movie narrative is located, then what?” Greenberg wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“Putting a tariff on Movies shot outside the US will increase the cost of shooting and the studios will lobby the Exhibitors to raise ticket prices and then the audience will skip the theatre and then … well you see where this is going,” Greenberg added.
