On Sunday (May 4), US President Trump posted on social media that he would impose 100% tariffs on all films produced abroad and entered the United States.

As soon as this statement was made, Governor Newsom of California, the location of Hollywood, publicly sang an opposite tune with Trump again. Newsom's team bluntly stated that Trump has no right to impose tariffs.

On this basis, Newsom also took the initiative to "take action" and called on the Trump administration to increase federal tax credit incentives for the California film industry, saying that this can truly "make American films great again."

Trump has no right to impose additional movie tariffs?

On Sunday, Eastern Time, Trump posted that he authorized the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to immediately initiate the process and impose 100% tariffs on all films produced abroad and entered the United States.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that “the American film industry is declining rapidly” and believed that “other countries provide various incentives that have attracted our filmmakers and film companies to leave the United States”, threatening “we want to get the films to be filmed in the United States again!”

Although Trump's tariff plan lacks many details, judging from his speech on TruthSocial, his intention seems to be to force Hollywood to move production sites back to the United States - many Hollywood movies are currently produced globally, including filming and post-production overseas, in part to reduce the cost of the film.

Faced with another round of tariff plans by Trump, California Gov. Gavin Newsom initially adopted a wait-and-see attitude, only calling on the president to release "more details" and not publish more opinions.

But by Monday night, Newsom's attitude became tougher. Newsom's office said that under the International Economic Emergency Act, the U.S. president "has no right" to impose tariffs on any company that makes movies overseas.

Newsom senior communications consultant Bob Salady reiterated this view in an interview: “We believe that under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, he has no right to impose tariffs because the tariffs are not listed as a remedy for the law.”

Make American movies great again with tax cuts?

In addition to opposing the tariffs, Newsom went further and made a new appeal: calling on the Trump administration to contribute money to support a $7.5 billion federal film industry tax incentive program—more than twenty times the current film tax credit in California.

Newsom claims that this funding can truly “make American movies great again.”

“California has created the film industry – we are ready to bring more jobs back to California,” Newsom said on X. “We have proven the effectiveness of strong state-level incentives. It’s time to build a real federal partnership to make American film flourish again.”

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If approved, the proposal will become the largest single government subsidy project in the United States to date and the first such project at the federal level in the United States. At present, more than 30 states in the United States have introduced incentives to attract and retain film and television productions, but none of them have subsidized projects worth more than $1 billion per year. California currently has only $330 million in subsidies for the film industry every year.

Trump slams Newsom for "extremely incompetent"

The outside world speculated that Newsom's attitude changed from waiting and watching to become tougher may be the artillery fire from Trump.

Earlier Monday, Trump insulted Newsom several times at a press conference and blamed him personally for the decline of California film and television production.

When asked by reporters about the details of the film tariffs, Trump looked around and did not answer the specific tariff details, but instead criticized Newsom as "an extremely incompetent governor" who allowed the American film industry to be "taken away from Hollywood."

In fact, Trump and Newsom may have had a "personal grudge" before.

The California government is the first state to publicly oppose it after Trump announced his reciprocal tariff decision in early April, and Gov. Newsom took the lead in prosecution of the Trump administration on April 16, accusing the latter of abusing tariff policies of "illegal".

On May 2, Newsom also said in an interview that the Trump administration's tariff policy has caused great harm to California, and California will continue to "open the trade door" to China.

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