President Donald Trump’s announcement that a 100% tariff will be levied on foreign-made movies comes a month after West Wing actor Rob Lowe sounded the warning on the costs of filming in Hollywood.
On Sunday, Trump lamented the state of Hollywood, which he said is dying a “very fast death.”
But rather than blame the policies of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), he instead blamed a “concerted effort” by other nations to woo filming away from Tinseltown.
Last month, Lowe, however, blamed Los Angeles and California leadership for offering no tax credits.
In a podcast interview with his former Parks and Recreation co-star Adam Scott, Lowe said, “There are no tax credits, so like, all those other places are offering 40%. And then on top of that, there’s other stuff that they do.”
“And then, that’s not even talking about union stuff,” he continued. “It’s just tax, economics of it all, so it’s criminal what California and LA have let happen — it’s criminal. Everybody should be fired.”
Lowe explained to Scott that his Fox game show, The Floor, films in Dublin, because it is cheaper to fly everybody involved in the show to the Irish capital than it is to film it on a Hollywood lot.
Scott asked Lowe if he believed they would be shooting Parks and Recreation abroad right now if the show were still in production.
“One hundred percent, we would be. We’d be in Budapest,” Lowe responded.
A week after Lowe and Scott’s interview was released, the California Film Commission approved a record 51 movies for tax incentives, according to the Wrap. In October 2024, Newsom announced plans to supercharge California’s tax credits for movies from the current level of $330 million annually to $750 million.
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Bob Sallady, Newsom’s senior adviser for communications, told Deadline in the wake of Trump’s movie tariff post that “we believe he has no authority to impose tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, since tariffs are not listed as a remedy under that law.”
Hollywood continues to be a major part of the U.S. economy, accounting for more than 2.3 million jobs in 2022, according to data from the Motion Picture Association.
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The United States remains the top filming hub by production, with $14.5 billion in 2024, according to ProdPro, but that number is down 26% from 2022, and a survey of executives regarding their preferred locations for 2025-26 listed Toronto; the United Kingdom; Vancouver, Canada; Central Europe; and Australia as their top five.
In January, Trump announced he was appointing the actors Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, calling on them to bring investment back to the “great, but very troubled place.”