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Hello and welcome to White House Watch. Mark Carney is expected to meet Donald Trump in Washington today for his first face-to-face meeting since the Canadian Prime Minister swept power on an anti-Trump platform last Monday.
For the moment, let's jump:
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Make Hollywood Super again
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The moment of Marie Antoinette de Trump
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US business struggle against prices
Trump took his trade war in Hollywood.
The president said on Sunday that he Impose a 100% price On films made abroad because “the film industry in America is dying”.
In an article on Truth Social, Trump accused other countries of using “all kinds of incentives to attract our filmmakers and our studios”. He concluded: “We want films made in America, once again!”
The media leaders asked how the prices would work in practice, especially in the streaming era, since films are not physical good that passes a border.
However, Netflix's shares dropped around 2% yesterday while investors were worried about higher costs. Analysts also warned that threatened withdrawals could be “beyond devastat” For production centers in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
The American films and television sector generated a trade surplus of $ 15.3 billion in 2023, with a positive trade balance on all the main market in the world. Nevertheless, it is true that Hollywood has lost ground in the past two decades, because the countries of Europe and Asia attract filmmakers with generous offers of tax incentives to compensate for some of their costs.
Production in the Grand Los Angeles dropped 5.6% in 2024, making it the second productive year of Lester, according to the body of the Filmla industry.
The leaders were running yesterday to determine whether the threatened prices were even viable. “In what sense can you put a price on a Netflix program made in the United Kingdom and distributed worldwide on the Internet?” said Peter Bazalgette, former president of the British broadcaster ITV.
He said that the fate of the film industry could depend on what Trump ranked exactly as “film production”, and if he would include the high -end streaming series produced by global platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, which contribute the highest expenses abroad.
The White House refused to offer other details on the plan. A spokesperson told Financial Times that the administration “explored all options” to “protect the national and economic security of our country while making Hollywood Grand again”.
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What we hear
There was a “Tourbillon” of lobbying In Washington, in April, the most powerful business leaders in the world rushed to search for leaks and climbs of Trump prices, according to republican lobbyist Brian Ballard.
Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan leaders in Apple Tim Cook launched a mainly private campaign to bring the US President back to the edge of what they considered an extremely harmful trade war. Some played on their personal ties with Trump, struck during travel to Mar-A-Lago or through heavy donations to his sumptuous inauguration in January.
“Many tariff rates, such as electronics, did not come from major industry lobbying campaigns. He seemed more than Trump directly heard managers, like Tim Cook,” said a Washington business advisor. Cook Secure exemptions According to the overall 145% rate on China products, it made Apple iPhones.
The billionaire saisters Harold Hamm, who coordinated the donations of oil and gas for Trump's electoral campaign, said that he had managed to convince the president to withdraw from the prices that would have harmed the energy sector.
“I talked to Trump about what he would do for prices (in oil), especially in different parts of the country,” said Hamm. He said he also pointed out that the taxation of higher prices on Canadian crude imports could be hamstrings on certain refineries in the United States. “And so it was complicated and the president said,” Ok don't do that. “He didn't think it was a good idea.
Business leaders are increasingly avoiding publicly criticizing Trump and spending their time sending messages in the background complaining of prices to the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to a Wall Street senior manager who regularly speaks of the administration.
“It is better not to do it on television. It will not lead you very far,” he said. “You better have a more substantial conversation behind the scenes.”
