Donald Trump suggests “low-interest bonds” for movie producers but refuses to rule out tariffs
Donald Trump has indicated that he could offer “low-interest bonds” to movie productions in the US to help the film economy, but doubled down on his threat of tariffs on international films.
In a new interview with The New York Post, the US president revealed: “I’m going to be putting tariffs on movies from outside of the country — if they’re made in Canada, if they’re made in all these places, because Los Angeles has lost the movie industry.”
This echoes repeated threats Trump has made since the start of his second term in office, in which he threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on any movie made outside the US, in order to revitalise the Hollywood scene.
However, the president also stated that “we’re going to be doing bonds, some bonds, some low-interest bonds, for the movie industry. We’ll bring it back.”
Without elaborating any further on either his tariff threat or the purported bonds scheme, it adds to Trump’s interest and intervention in Hollywood, which he has had a major focus on, aside from international geopolitics, so far in his second term.
The film industry in the US has been lobbying the administration for a year, fighting for them to impose some form of federal production incentive, similar to those already in place for filmmakers in Canada and the UK.
These financial incentives, where the government subsidises certain elements of production costs if films shoot in their country, have been cited as a major reason behind the Hollywood landscape declining in favour of international markets.
It comes after one of Trump’s ‘special ambassadors’ to Hollywood, Jon Voight, recently touted plans alongside producers Scott Karol and Steven Paul, for various industry measures, according to Variety.
These potentially include the likes of federal incentives and tariffs on international films, although none of these schemes have yet been officially announced.
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