Hollywood Has Lost Its Cultural Power to Netflix and Streaming

‘The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” President Trump declared on Sunday, announcing his plan to impose a 100 percent tariff on films produced abroad. The proposal shook Hollywood, but it reflects something millions of Americans already feel: cinema has lost its cultural power. It no longer shapes the public imagination the way it once did. This isn’t just an industry in decline — it’s a ritual being hollowed out.

Whether or not Trump ever had a Citizen Kane poster hanging in his apartment — as last year’s glib The Apprentice biopic suggests — one thing’s clear: The man genuinely loves movies. A friend of the president once told me he’s a real cinephile, and you can hear that passion in his instincts. Whatever one makes of his tariff proposal, Trump seems to grasp something many in power have forgotten: films matter. They’re not just products; they’re shared experiences, moral touchstones, vessels of collective memory. He’s right to sound the alarm. But their collapse isn’t just economic — it’s cultural and spiritual, beginning the moment a society stops telling stories that move the soul and starts mistaking art for content.

‘The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” President Trump declared on Sunday, announcing his plan to impose a 100 percent tariff on films produced abroad. The proposal shook Hollywood, but it reflects something millions of Americans already feel: cinema has lost its cultural power. It no longer shapes the public imagination the way it once did. This isn’t just an industry in decline — it’s a ritual being hollowed out.

Whether or not Trump ever had a Citizen Kane poster hanging in his apartment — as last year’s glib The Apprentice biopic suggests — one thing’s clear: The man genuinely loves movies. A friend of the president once told me he’s a real cinephile, and you can hear that passion in his instincts. Whatever one makes of his tariff proposal, Trump seems to grasp something many in power have forgotten: films matter. They’re not just products; they’re shared experiences, moral touchstones, vessels of collective memory. He’s right to sound the alarm. But their collapse isn’t just economic — it’s cultural and spiritual, beginning the moment a society stops telling stories that move the soul and starts mistaking art for content.