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At least, it would presumably count as foreign-made, having been shot in England, Ireland and France. Trump鈥檚 late-night decree on social media states that his new plan to impose 100 per cent tariffs on 鈥渇oreign-made鈥� films is intended to force them to be 鈥淢ADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN.鈥�

What that actually means, no one seems to know. Which is what makes this proposal a perfect illustration of Trump鈥檚 entire trade strategy: it makes absolutely no sense, has been justified on ludicrous 鈥渘ational security鈥� grounds and appears to have spilled forth from the president鈥檚 brain before any practical details had been considered.

Let鈥檚 start with those details. Tariffs, the things Trump now loves more than anything other than golf and red hats, are applied to products when they cross the United States border. Goods on container ships, packages in transport trucks, stuff bought online and shipped directly to the consumer 鈥斅爐here are obvious points in the purchasing and delivery process where tariffs can be applied to these items.

A film, though, isn鈥檛 imported in a physical sense at all. There might be a literal film involved when it鈥檚 shown in a theatre, but its value is entirely in its intellectual property. Who would pay the tariff on a movie? The Hollywood studio? The audience? The theatre chain? The streaming service or broadcaster? And if that question could even be answered, how would such a tariff be applied and collected?

There is simply no process by which to impose a tariff on something that isn鈥檛, in any rational sense, 鈥渋mported鈥� by the U.S. 鈥斅爐o leave aside the many other questions about what would constitute an 鈥淎merican-made鈥� film. Would, for example, The Godfather count as American, or would Francis Ford Coppola have had to scrap the entire section with Michael Corleone in Sicily to avoid punitive tariffs?

One of the many criticisms levelled at Trump over his baffling tariff schemes, with their bogus justifications and random targets, is that he only ever acknowledges the U.S. trade deficit in goods. America runs massive trade surpluses in services, which include everything from software to retail brands to financial services to hotels to real estate. These make up the bulk of the U.S. economy.

Other nations have so far resisted incorporating services into Trump鈥檚 trade wars 鈥� most are still trying to figure out what exactly he wants 鈥� but if the president is going to start a service-related tariff fight in the film industry, he will only end up exposing the vast array of American companies that sell services abroad to potential retaliation (including, it鈥檚 worth noting, his own hotel properties).

Did Trump think any of this through? Is he trying to devastate Hollywood to save it? Did he just happen to catch the trailer for the next Mission: Impossible film, with its scenes in Moscow and London, and think it would have been much better if Tom Cruise had been racing through Omaha and Des Moines instead?

As is so often the case with Trump, it鈥檚 impossible to know how this started. Remember, this is the same guy who was making jokes about becoming the next Pope and then, days later, sharing AI-generated images of himself in papal vestments. Sometimes he even surprises himself with how great his ideas are.

But the film-tariff plan, such as it is, underscores an uncomfortable fact that the rest of the world needs to recognize: there鈥檚 no point trying to understand or rationalize whatever Trump has done or decides to do next. He is unburdened by logic, although he is nevertheless convinced of his own correctness.

It鈥檚 an absurd combination, yet it鈥檚 also one to keep in mind while sitting across from him at the negotiating table.