Editor’s note: Bill Mechanic is chairman and CEO of Pandemonium Films and a former top executive at Paramount and Disney and chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment. He also is a former producer of the Oscars and Oscar-nominated films like Hacksaw Ridge and Coraline. He also is a teller of hard truths to whom Deadline turns when nobody else will speak up on a hot-button issue. That certainly is the case right now, a day after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social how he plans to “fix” runaway production by imposing tariffs on films and TV shows that film outside the U.S. The common refrain today has been that a film business finally on its firmest footing since Covid doesn’t need a force to destabilize the hard-won forward momentum. Mechanic takes it a step further, questioning Trump’s motives behind a power play that puts Hollywood on its heels,...