Whoopi Goldberg has heard enough from Donald Trump on a potential new 100 percent tariff on movies made overseas.
During Tuesday’s episode of The View, the 69-year-old talk show told the 47th president of the United States to forget about it.
“Okay, look, you can’t do that,” she said. “What that equates to is, you’re going to tell me how to write the story I want to write if it happens in Europe? Look, could you please lower the price of eggs before you start this?”
When “you go over to another country to work, you work with the people who are there. We don’t import our folks to go over there. Who are you going to put this tariff on? The production? The studio? What are you talking about?” Goldberg continued.
“Please stop. The bottom line is tax incentives. If you want to change, you have to change it in the states, and make it available for people to shoot here. Don’t stop us from going over and shooting overseas, because then you’re limiting us,” she emphasized.
“And also, not for nothing, the movies teach people English,” the EGOT winner pointed out. “We teach people who will never get to America what America is all about. We show them who we are. If you impose a tax like this, you’re saying that we’re not good enough, and that’s not the case. We’re the best in the world.”
Goldberg’s comments followed Trump’s unexpected post on social media earlier this week, revealing he had given both the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department the green light to begin steps toward imposing the new tariff on films produced outside of the U.S.
The White House, however, subsequently published a statement to clarify that “no final decisions” were made on movie tariffs.
Trump’s U.S. ‘special ambassador’ to Hollywood Jon Voight and actor Steven Paul submitted a statement to Variety shortly after the president posted his plan, suggesting that the two of them had submitted a solution to help the entertainment industry.
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“The plan includes federal incentives for production and post-production, co-production treaties with foreign countries, as well as infrastructure subsidies for theater owners and production companies, job training, and changes to the tax code. The plan also calls for tariffs in ‘certain limited circumstances,” Voight said.
“The president loves the entertainment business and this country, and he will help us make Hollywood great again,” Voight added.
Regarding the future of film under a Trump tariff directive, The Independent’s Sean O’Grady writes: He “wants to bring back the golden age of Hollywood that he remembers. In reality, he’s on a mission impossible.”
