First announced in May, then having laid dormant until recently, United States President Donald Trump has again announced his intentions to implement a 100% tariff on all international made movies brought to stateside. Like the first time, the details on how this will be implemented, enforced, and maintained remain unknown.

In his posts on his Truth Social Account, Trump has personally lambasted California governor Gavin Newsom for his alleged role in how America’s film industry has been operating in relation to foreign industries and necessitating these tariffs. Like the initial announcements in May, it is unclear whether these will actually materialize in the near-future or if they will fade away one more time. How these tariffs would be instituted are not hinted at by Trump’s comments or intentions. There is speculation that it could be referring to the practice of American productions moving principal photography overseas, or alternatively by viewing foreign movies as products ala imported goods, and charging a price on bringing a movie’s digital stream or film reel for projection to American theaters. However, the film industry and practices generally do not conform to these kinds of market practices, and as a result there is not a clean analogue to prepare people on what form to expect these tariffs to take, if they take place at all.

However, it is doubtful that any tariffs on international films in any form would actually accomplish Trump’s supposed wish for revitalizing the American film industry. Previously, subsidies and tax breaks towards Hollywood productions were used by different pockets of the country to revive and expand film work in the region, such as Atlanta, Georgia has been doing the past decade until Hollywood shifted production gears outside towards London, England. Many American productions such as the Spider-Man movies are now doing their filming internationally in England, while independent art film productions like A24’s The Brutalist (directed by American Brady Corbet and co-written by his Norwegian partner, Mona Fastvold) accomplish principal photography in countries with low crew costs like Hungary or Bulgaria. Simply putting tariffs on international productions or their distributions would not be enough to cause a sea change that leads to increased homeland production.