The tariff idea, it seems, at least partially came from actor Jon Voight, one of three Hollywood “ambassadors”—along with Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson—chosen by Trump to advise him. Voight reportedly met with the president recently at Mar-a-Lago along with his manager to share plans to increase US film production. Their plan included tax incentives, coproduction treaties with other countries, “tariffs in certain limited circumstances,” and other strategies, according to The New York Times.
Following Trump’s tariff post, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), signaled he was open to the plan but wanted to know more specifics. Matthew Loeb, the president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union that represents scores of crew workers, also asked for more information, adding, “Any eventual trade policy must do no harm to our Canadian members—nor the industry overall.”
Paul Erickson, a media and entertainment analyst with Omdia, says there are a lot of question marks around “just how disruptive and financially damaging” the tariffs could be to studios or what benefits there could be, if they were to go into effect. “The level of potential benefit to the US domestic film ecosystem is difficult to gauge given the scant details thus far,” Erickson says.
Following Trump’s announcement Sunday, several Democratic leaders offered tax credits as an alternative. On Monday, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that he wanted to work with the president on a $7.5 billion federal film tax credit. Dozens of states, like Georgia and California, offer such incentives, but no national program exists. Newsom’s plan would be a first. US Senator Adam Schiff of California, long a proponent of federal incentives, also called for credits.
In a statement released Monday, Schiff said he shared Trump’s goal of bringing more filmmaking back to the US but added that “blanket tariffs on all films would have unintended and potentially damaging impacts.” Tax credits, he added, would be a way the US could reshore jobs.
On Monday, Trump told reporters he wanted to meet with the studios to talk about the 100 percent tariffs he’d proposed. “I’m not looking to hurt the industry. I want to help the industry,” he said. “But whose industry?” wrote Hollywood Reporter columnist Steven Zeitchik, noting that even Trump’s “ambassadors” Gibson and Stallone make movies abroad. It’s hard to tell how much the administration will want to work with studios, or give them credits, especially given its positions on studios’ DEI efforts and funding the arts. Maybe, though, the tariff plan is just about the art of the deal.
Update: 5/6/2025, 4:50 PM EDT: This piece has been updated to clarify Adam Schiff’s title.