Thirty years after his cameo in Home Alone 2, it seems Donald Trump still has no idea how Hollywood works. As part of his nativist campaign against all things international, the president has vowed once again to impose a poorly explained “100% tariff” on films made outside of America—an idea he first introduced in May.
On Monday, Trump once again declared his intent to tax internationally-made films. “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby,’” Trump wrote September 29 on Truth Social. “California, with its weak and incompetent Governor [Gavin Newsom], has been particularly hard hit! Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT.”
Trump’s new missive comes 78 days before the Oscars shortlist nominations are announced on December 16, and less than six months before the 2026 ceremony takes place March 15. Should a tariff take effect before then, it could have reverberations far beyond the best international feature category. The increasingly international Academy has gotten in the habit of rewarding more and more movies produced entirely or partially abroad, especially in the years since Parasite took home best picture in 2020. At last year’s ceremony, international productions from countries including Poland, Hungary, France, and the UK won Oscars in three out of four acting categories, though best picture, actress, and director went to the all-American Anora.
According to the president, international features are a parasitic plague upon Hollywood. Trump has called internationally-made films a “National Security threat” that have led to the “very fast death” of cinema. He has said that Hollywood is “being destroyed” because of “other nations […] stealing the moviemaking capabilities from the United States.”
Most of Hollywood agrees that American-made films are struggling—though it’s not clear whether penalizing international features will give domestic features a boost. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s calculations, the U.S. has produced 10% less films in 2025 than it did the year prior. The United Kingdom and Canada are also experiencing year-over-year production spend declines; Australia is the only listed nation that has increased its output, but that country’s film market is only a fraction of Hollywood’s. Australia spends $1.1 billion American annually on films, compared to $7.2 billion in the U.S. All of the aforementioned nations also give large-scale Hollywood productions generous tax incentives to shoot there rather than in the U.S.
Trump isn’t alone in pushing for more projects to be shot in the U.S.: California Governor Newsom, whom Trump once again singled out in his latest social media tirade, is already working on increasing tax incentives for Hollywood productions. Newsom doubled the amount of funding for state-filmed projects in 2024, and his administration further expanded the Film and Television Tax Credit Program for California in August 2025. An August 27 announcement estimated that $1.1 billion will be generated in spending across California, with $413 million in qualified wages, thanks to 22 TV series currently being filmed in-state.
