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US President Donald Trump said Sunday he was ordering new tariffs on all films made outside the United States, claiming Hollywood was being “devastated” by a trend of US filmmakers and studios working abroad.
The announcement comes as the White House is coming under mounting criticism over its aggressive trade policies that have seen Trump impose sweeping tariffs on countries around the globe.
“I am authorising 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,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reposted Trump’s missive, saying, “We’re on it.”
No details were provided on how the tariff would be implemented.
Trump’s post comes after China, which has taken the brunt of the US president’s combative trade policies with 145 per cent tariffs on many goods, said last month it would reduce the number of US films it imported.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump wrote Sunday.
“Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” he added, claiming that production being drawn to other countries was a “National Security threat.”
The implications for the movie industry — or how exactly the tariffs would be enacted — were not immediately clear.
There was also no mention in Trump’s post of whether television series, an increasingly popular and profitable sector of production for the screen, would be affected.
US not in top five
Hollywood is a major sector of the United States’ economy, generating more than 2.3 million jobs and $279 billion in sales in 2022, according to the latest data from the Motion Picture Association.
But in the wake of the Hollywood strikes and the COVID pandemic impacts, which changed how Americans consumed movies, opting to watch at home instead of in theatres, the industry is still struggling to regain its momentum, industry insiders say.
According to a January report by production tracking service ProdPro, the United States is a top filming hub with $14.5 billion in production spend, though that amount is a 26 per cent drop compared to two years earlier.
However, a survey of studio executives revealed that their top five preferred production locations for 2025 and 2026 were all outside of the United States, due to competitive tax incentive schemes on offer.
First was Toronto, followed by Britain, Vancouver, Central Europe and then Australia. California came in at sixth place.
Ahead of his inauguration in January, Trump appointed longstanding supporters Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as special envoys to Hollywood.
He said they would make the entertainment industry “STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE” in a post on Truth Social.
Trump and the Republicans have traditionally received scant support from the entertainment industry, and a galaxy of stars from Taylor Swift to George Clooney backed Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
How this affects Kenya’s creative economy
President Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff on films made outside the United States threatens to derail Kenya’s growing ambitions in the creative economy, particularly its efforts to position itself as a prime filming destination for international studios.
In recent years, Kenya has sought to attract U.S. productions through incentives like reduced location fees, support from the Kenya Film Commission, and regional co-production frameworks.
In 2024, Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Youth Affairs and Creative Economy Ababu Namwamba hosted a series of meetings between executives from US-based invention Studios and Kenya film sector stakeholders in Nairobi, where he outlined the measures the Ministry had taken to stimulate partnerships among film creators in the respective countries.
“We have developed an incentive framework aimed at mobilising investments in the film sector which is a key component of the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda”, said CS Namwamba at the time.
However, with Trump’s policy penalising U.S. filmmakers who shoot abroad, these incentives may now hold less appeal.
Instead of encouraging American filmmakers to explore Kenya’s scenic landscapes and rich cultural narratives, the tariffs could push them to remain within U.S. borders to avoid additional distribution costs.
This development puts pressure on Kenya’s creative economy blueprint to pivot.
Rather than relying on inbound U.S. productions, Kenya may now need to double down on building regional partnerships, supporting local content creation, and tapping into other international markets such as Europe, Asia, and Africa, where trade relations remain more stable and welcoming to co-productions.
The long-term vision for Kenya’s film industry may require greater self-reliance and strategic diversification.
