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Spike Lee says âpeople are hurtingâ in jab at Trumpâs foreign-made film tariffs
â??I donâ??t know how much we can talk about American values considering who is the president,â?? the director said
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Spike Lee not-so-subtly shaded Donald Trump while speaking at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival ahead of the world premiere of his new film, Highest 2 Lowest.
During Mondayâs press conference, the acclaimed Do the Right Thing director, 68, was asked if social media has negatively impacted American morals.
In a clip of the moment shared to social media, Lee replied with an impish grin: âWell, I donât know how much we can talk about American values considering who is the president.â
âMy wife said, âSpike, be very careful what you say!ââ he laughed, per Variety. âBut hereâs the thing, I donât think we can condemn social media. People say the same thing about film or whatever. So Iâm not going to demonize the form.â
Lee was later asked more directly about Trumpâs plan to impose 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made films. While Lee admitted that he âdoesnât have the answer for that,â he noted that âpeople are definitely hurting.â
âNo oneâs working,â the BlacKkKlansman director said. âThe guy just said he wanted to put a tariff on every film that shot⦠I donât know how thatâs going to work.â
Spike Lee shaded Donald Trump while speaking at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival (Getty Images)Trumpâs push for tariffs on foreign-made films began earlier this month with a Truth Social post, in which he claimed other countries were "offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United Statesâ which was, in turn, âdevastatingâ Hollywood.
The president then authorized 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."
Shortly after that initial Truth Social post, White House officials clarified that âno final decisionsâ had been made and that all options were being explored.
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Trump then spoke out again, stating: "Iâm not looking to hurt the industry; I'm looking to help.â
It remains unclear if or when said tariffs would take effect.
But Lee wasnât the only director to have spoken out against the presidentâs proposed tariffs at this yearâs film festival.
Over the weekend, director Richard Linklater, who was there with his new movie, Nouvelle Vague, defiantly addressed Trumpâs plans, saying: âThe tariff thing, thatâs not gonna happen right? That guy changes his mind like 50 times in one day.
âItâs the one export industry in the U.S., it would be kind of dumb to⦠Whatever, we donât have to talk about that.â
Wes Anderson also mocked Trumpâs threats, saying Monday that heâd ânever heard of a 100 percent tariff before.â
âIâm not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means heâs saying heâs going to take all the money. And then what do we get? So itâs complicated to me,â he said, quipping: âDoes that mean you can hold up the movie in customs? I feel it doesnât ship that way. Iâm not sure I want to know the details so Iâll hold off on my official answer.â
Meanwhile, Leeâs new movie, Highest 2 Lowest, starring his longtime collaborator Denzel Washington and rapper A$AP Rocky, premiered on Monday.
The movie, which follows a music mogul who faces a life-and-death moral dilemma when he gets involved in a ransom plot, has already divided critics.
The Independentâs Geoffrey Macnab called it âgeneric,â arguing that it is âshort on emotional depthâ in a three-star review. Meanwhile, Roger Ebertâs Robert Daniels hailed it as âan exceptional piece of personal filmmaking that might be Leeâs most energetic film since Inside Man.â
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