Kristen Stewart has slammed Donald Trump’s ‘terrifying’ tariff proposals targeting the movie industry, admitting she can’t ‘work freely’ in the US anymore.
The actress achieved global stardom as Bella Swan in the Twilight saga and has since turned her attention to indie projects, including her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, which releases this February.
Having grown up in the entertainment industry – both her parents work behind-the-scenes in Hollywood – Kristen has seen the world of movies evolve and explained why, under Trump, the industry is no longer viable.
Speaking to The Times, the 35-year-old explained that she shot her upcoming feature film in Latvia because it would have been ‘impossible’ to do in the US.
“Reality is breaking completely under Trump,” she said. “But we should take a page out of his book and create the reality we want to live in.”
She also took aim at Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on movies made outside the US, calling it ‘terrifying’.
In a post on Truth Social, the President said that these tariffs were the result of the movie-making business being ‘stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries’, as he claimed it was ‘DYING a very fast death’.
Trump’s suggestion, made in September, has not yet come to fruition.
Currently, the Spencer star splits her time between Los Angeles and New York, but admits that might not be the case for much longer.
She told the publication she’s ‘probably not’ going to remain in the US, adding: “I can’t work freely there. But I don’t want to give up completely.”
Instead, she’s hatched another plan: “I’d like to make movies in Europe and then shove them down the throat of the American people,” she added.
This isn’t the first time Kristen and Trump have had beef. In fact, they go way back, long before Trump had ever set foot in the White House.
In 2012, while Kristen was dating her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, the actress became embroiled in a highly publicized cheating scandal involving her then-married Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders.
Both Stewart and Sanders apologized in separate statements, with her and Pattinson’s relationship temporarily ending before the pair rekindled in 2012. However, the two called it quits for good in 2013.
At the height of the fallout, Trump – who was still a reality TV star at the time – weighed in on the drama, posting a string of tweets about the couple. He urged Pattinson to end the relationship, writing that the Batman actor ‘should not take back Kristen Stewart’ and claiming she had ‘cheated on him like a dog’.
Trump then doubled down with further posts insisting Pattinson would be better off without her.
“Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart,” he wrote, adding that Robert would ‘thank me’ in the future.
Years later, the Mickey 17 star would dismiss the episode as ‘weird,’ admitting he was confused as to why Trump appeared so invested in the situation.
Meanwhile, in 2024, Kristen said that Trump had to ‘weigh in on my tarring and feathering’, adding: “It’s like, ‘What is this 20-year-old who has no idea about life doing to this man?’”
The Chronology of Water releases in theatres on Friday (February 6).