An Opportunity Hidden in Trump’s Movie Tariff Madness

Donald Trump
Going after entertainment and media elites is a pretty major pillar of the MAGA movement—Google “Trump vs. Hollywood” for some of the greatest hits. Now Trump wants to be the industry’s savior, even as he tries to decimate arts institutions like PBS and NPR? Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
May 6, 2025

The proper response to the past 24 hours in Hollywood has, for sure, been holy shit. But maybe not for the reason you might think. Amid the sea of questions about Donald Trump’s Sunday evening promise to levy a 100 percent tariff on movies “that are produced in Foreign Lands,” three things are almost certainly true: