Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien and Teamsters Motion Picture Division Director Lindsay Dougherty praised President Donald Trump’s call to place a 100% tariff on films produced in other countries.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump wrote that the “Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.” He went on to warn, “Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” and that, “Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.”
Trump added that plans to institute a tariff are in the works, and he authorized 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.”
The two representatives of the Teamsters union praised Trump for this in a statement, saying, “For years, Hollywood studios have hollowed out the industry by following Corporate America’s crooked playbook of outsourcing good union jobs. Studios chase cheap production costs overseas while gutting the American workforce that built the film and TV industry.”
“These gigantic corporations line their pockets by recklessly cutting corners, abandoning American crews, and exploiting tax loopholes abroad,” the statement added. “While these companies get rich fleeing to other countries and gaming the system, our members have gotten screwed over. The Teamsters Union has been sounding the alarm for years. If studios want to benefit from American box offices, they must invest in American workers.”
The statement included an explicit statement of praise for Trump himself, declaring, “We thank President Trump for boldly supporting good union jobs when others have turned their heads. This is a strong step toward finally reining in the studios’ un-American addiction to outsourcing our members’ work.”
The union clarified that they are willing to praise representatives of any party for embracing such an agenda.
“The Teamsters applaud any elected official — Republican, Democrat, Independent — who’s willing to fight for American workers,” the statement read. “We look forward to continuing to work with the administration to build a trade agenda that benefits our members and workers throughout the American motion picture and TV industry.”
It concluded, “It’s time to create good film jobs here at home by bringing production back to America.”
O’Brien spoke about the union’s statement on Fox News’ “America Reports” Tuesday, reaffirming his support for Trump’s policy. He argued that America has the most creative workforce and actors, but shredded Hollywood leaders for being more focused on “the bottom line of a balance sheet” than creativity.
At one point in the interview, Fox News host John Roberts asked the union boss what he thinks about how Democrats are “demonizing” the president. O’Brien suggested that the Democratic Party is reflexively against anything Trump wants.
“I think I’ve said this before, whatever President Trump does, even if it’s good for this country, just because his name is Trump, he’s not gonna get the support,” O’Brien said of the Democratic Party. “We are looking beyond any differences of opinions that we have had with anybody.”
“We want to bring manufacturing back to the country. We want to bring jobs, put people to work at, have a career path. Not everybody has the ability to go to a 4-year college. There is an ability to bring manufacturing back, put people to work, have careers and live a middle-class life. I think regardless of whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent, we should be realists and want to encourage people to develop and manufacture in this country,” he concluded.
