Lawrence O’Donnell Insists Trump’s Foreign Movies Tariff Will Never Happen: ‘Nothing to See Here’ | Video

Lawrence O’Donnell says Hollywood can relax about President Donald Trump’s Sunday announcement that he would slap a “100% tariff” on all movies made in foreign countries – because it will never happen.

The White House walked back Trump’s statement Monday in the face of immense confusion and criticism from Hollywood insiders, telling TheWrap that “no final decisions” about foreign film tariffs had been made yet. “The administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai.

O’Donnell made it clear Monday night that he believes Trump’s proposed film tariff will not come to fruition.

“Donald Trump’s latest utter insanity on tariffs is about movies,” the “Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” host began, telling viewers that Trump’s foreign movie tariff “will never happen.”

“It will allow for some interesting, fun TV interviews, I suppose, [with] people from Hollywood who might be concerned about this, people in show business. But it is a complete waste of your time to even think about that very, very stupid statement by the President of the United States,” O’Donnell explained. “No one at the Department of Commerce or the United States Trade Representative will even attempt to put that crazy idea in writing, because it is impossible to put it in legal language for any purpose of a tariff.”

“It is one of those idiotic Trump ideas that requires a depth of stupidity in its authorship that no one else in the history of American government [has] possessed, other than Donald Trump,” the MSNBC anchor added.

You can watch O’Donnell’s full segment on the topic in the video below.

Regarding Trump’s remark that runaway production represents a national security threat, O’Donnell said, “The president does have an extremely limited authority to impose tariffs in response to a product that presents a national security threat to the United States. That’s why he’s calling movies a national security threat.”

Trump is said to be reviewing a proposal from Special Ambassador Jon Voight that would help bring more productions back to America, following a meeting between Trump, Voight and the latter’s producing partner, Steven Paul, at Mar-a-Lago this past weekend. Voight’s proposal calls for the use of tariffs in “certain limited circumstances,” but mainly the establishment of federal incentives for production and post-production, infrastructure subsidies for theater owners and co-production treaties with foreign countries.

It is possible that something could come from Trump’s review of Voight’s proposal, the latter of which comes at a time when many within Hollywood are decrying the decreased numbers of Hollywood productions throughout the United States, including in Los Angeles itself. O’Donnell does not, however, see any reason for moviegoers or Hollywood workers to worry about Trump’s proposed foreign film tariff.

“The Trump movie tariff is so insane that it will never even find its way into a federal courtroom to be struck down instantaneously, as it would, because it is impossible to even write it. Even the most sycophantic Trump clowns working for him — to try to put that idiocy into legal language, even for them, is impossible,” O’Donnell concluded. “Hollywood can relax. Movie theater operators don’t have to worry. Moviegoers and movie watchers, there’s nothing to see here. It’s just more Trumpian nonsense.”

The post Lawrence O’Donnell Insists Trump’s Foreign Movies Tariff Will Never Happen: ‘Nothing to See Here’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.