Jimmy Kimmel Warns Trump Tariffs Could Spell Trouble for ‘The White Lotus’

Jimmy Kimmel was as confused as everyone else about Donald Trump‘s recent rant on how he intends to save the movie industry. But he fears the president’s tariffs could have a negative impact on The White Lotus and other TV shows and movies.

“Trump’s now aiming his wrecking ball at Hollywood,” the late-night host said during his opening monologue on Monday’s (May 5) episode Jimmy Kimmel Live! He then read out a post Trump made on the social media app Truth Social over the weekend.

“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” the President wrote. “Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.”

As for how he plans to fix this, Trump continued, “Therefore, I am 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!”

“We do?” Kimmel retorted. “Because I don’t care where they’re made. I really don’t. You know what? It’s what the late, great Hannibal Lecter would’ve wanted… Sonic the Illegal Immigrant Hedgehog is a national security threat and he must be stopped!”

The comedian then pointed out how Trump’s latest rant “wasn’t just another late Sunday night whim,” as the Commander in Chief stated he’d done “some very strong research over the last week.”

“Which means he had brunch with Jon Voight at Mar-A-Lago this weekend,” Kimmel said. When the audience laughed, he added, “That’s not a joke. That’s true.”

Kimmel continued, “This is where he reportedly got the tariff, the movies idea, from Angelina Jolie’s 86-year-old father she won’t talk to. What a great idea. Next year, The White Lotus is gonna be set at a Hampton Inn.”

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Elsewhere in Monday’s monologue, Kimmel touched on how Trump is still selling “Trump 2028” merch despite admitting over the weekend that he wouldn’t be running for a third term.

“Which is good, because it’s against the law,” Kimmel quipped before turning his attention to the “Trump 2028″ baseball caps. “It’s still so weird the president sells hats. It’s like we put the manager of a Hot Topic in charge of the country.”

He then suggested the “Trump 2028” merch is actually for Eric Trump, one of the President’s three sons. Kimmel even ran a satirical campaign ad for Eric, which included promises of “making cartoons less confusing” and “making dimes real big so we stop choking on them.”

You can watch the full monologue in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.