'It's idiocy': Reality TV producer laughs off Trump ultimatum

14 May

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts inside the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 9, 2025.

From the beloved children’s show “Bluey” to the blockbuster “Harry Potter” films, directors and producers have warned that President Donald Trump’s proposed 100 percent tariff on movies made in “foreign lands” would damage the U.S. entertainment industry’s ability to produce hit shows.

But Lamont Pete, a veteran reality TV producer, told Raw Story “nobody should really pay this much mind,” because Trump’s May 4 Truth Social post isn’t grounded in “reality.”

“When he came out and said this I don't think he really thought it through, but surprise, surprise, that would not be the first,” Pete said. “Honestly, I think nobody should really pay this much mind … that’s the most ridiculous s-–t I’ve ever heard.”

Earlier this month, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was “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!” Trump said.

The next day, the White House said “no final decisions" had been made about instituting film tariffs. It did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

“Common is not even a word” to describe how often film and TV producers use locations outside of the U.S. for filming or hire international talent, said Pete, whose near-25-year career has included casting for shows such as “The Real World,” “Dating Naked,” “Wild ‘n Out” and “The Simple Life”.

“It's really, when are they not?” said Pete, who has also worked on movies including “Respect,” about the singer Aretha Franklin.

“It works out pretty well when you can do that because you can get the best creative work from any part of the globe. It's not always gonna be localized. It’s just not reality.”

Pete said the entertainment industry was still recovering from COVID-19, with filmmakers continuing to work on shrunken budgets — which often takes them to countries like Australia or Canada, which offer tax incentives.

The day after Trump’s post, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed working with the president on a $7.5 billion federal film tax credit plan.

“If you really care, you would say … everything made in the U.S., from pre- to post-[production], we're going to give you these tax credits, and it's gonna incentivize you to be here,” Pete said.

“That's what somebody who actually wants to see our industry thrive would do. [Trump’s] not that guy.”

Pete challenged the feasibility of enforcing tariffs on films that use international locations and questioned the concept of instituting tariffs on intellectual property rather than products.

“You gonna monitor the back credits? ‘Ooh, I think they went to Korea and did this’? You can't put tariffs on IP. It's intellectual property — concepts people think about. You can put tariffs on goods, but how do you tax an idea?”

‘It’s idiocy’

Thousands of economists have spoken out against Trump’s tariffs policy, which made the costs of imports soar, particularly from China.

“It's idiocy. It's like saying two plus two equals zero,” Donald Boudreaux, a leader of the Anti-Tariff Declaration and former chair of the Department of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., told Raw Story of Trump’s love for tariffs.

“It makes no sense. You can say it, but it’s just illogical.”

On Monday, the U.S. and China came to an agreement for a 90-day pause on 145 percent tariffs Trump instated last month, shrinking tariffs on Chinese imports to 30 percent, with 10 percent tariffs on U.S. goods going the other way.

“I can't believe that now Hollywood is in trouble,” said Jeep Kline, who teaches finance at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It's not a good idea to use tariff policy as a broad swath of how we actually protect and support any particular industry.”

Tariffs of any kind end up hurting those who work on film and TV sets as they are consumers, said Kline, founder and managing partner at Raisewell Ventures.

Boudreaux said of Trump: “He just has no plan. He just loves tariffs. I will give the man this: I think he is not acting in a venal way. I think he is — because he's been this way for 40 years — sincerely ideologically committed to tariffs.”

Pete, who said he crossed paths with Trump when he was the star of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” said he thinks Trump’s tariff attacks on the film industry are more of a “private get back” — because Trump has long been “ridiculed” by Hollywood stars.

“I think that this has more to do with a man who's been shunned by an industry that he wished at one point he was accepted by,” Pete said.

“He's been the butt of so many jokes, and Hollywood has been a thorn in his side. So, of course, you're gonna wake up one morning and say, ‘Man, how can I show Hollywood that I'm not to be messed with?’”

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