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This is an adapted excerpt from the May 5 episode of “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.”
Investors appear to be getting a little impatient for some good news on Donald Trump’s trade war. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 continued to sink after snapping its nine-day winning streak on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite also finished the day down.
But this news also serves as a reminder to make sure we look at not just what this administration says, but how it operates.
Those losses could be linked to Trump opening a new front in his trade war. Seemingly out of nowhere, on Sunday Trump announced on social media that he wants to put tariffs on movies not made in the United States.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. … Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Still no word from the White House on how placing tariffs on foreign-made movies would even work. However, we have learned that actor and Trump ally Jon Voight is directly involved in the president’s push to “make Hollywood great again.”
A 100% tariff on imported movies would do pretty much nothing to “bring movies back” to America. What it does do is welcome retaliation, and if other countries impose the same tariff on the U.S. film industry, Hollywood will lose a lot of money and a lot of jobs.
But this news also serves as a reminder to look at not just what this administration says, but how it operates.
This deal would be a massive windfall for World Liberty Financial, which, as The New York Times has reported, is largely owned by a Trump family corporate entity.
Trump’s proposal to slap tariffs on foreign films has dominated headlines, joined by outrage over an AI image of Trump as pope and his grand ideas for rebuilding Alcatraz. But it’s important to also look at the stories Trump has not been talking about.
Last week, a United Arab Emirates state-backed investment firm put $2 billion in one of Trump’s cryptocurrencies. The deal was announced onstage at a cryptocurrency convention in Dubai by Zach Witkoff, a co-founder of the Trump family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and son of the president’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. Also on stage at the time of that announcement: Eric Trump.
This deal would be a massive windfall for World Liberty Financial, which, as The New York Times has reported, is largely owned by a Trump family corporate entity.
On the same day as that announcement, Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, reported the U.S. is considering relaxing restrictions on Nvidia’s chip sales to the United Arab Emirates. This would be a huge win for the UAE, as its progress on artificial intelligence has been limited due to the Biden administration’s rules on chips. All of this comes as Trump is set to visit the country as part of his Middle East trip next week.
But that’s not all. There’s another story involving Trump’s crypto ventures that might have missed your radar. An international trucking logistics firm just announced it plans to buy $20 million of Trump’s crypto coins. Now maybe they’re not trying to buy influence on trade policy, but why exactly would a trucking company roll the dice on a meme coin that just happens to benefit the president?
It’s reports like these that have us asking: Is this White House for sale?
Allison Detzel contributed.
