President Donald Trump has said he will impose a 25% tariff on imports from the European Union, claiming it was created to “screw” its country.
At the cabinet’s first meeting on Wednesday, Trump said a tariff decision would be made and announced “quickly.”
“Generally speaking, that would be 25%,” Trump told reporters. “And that’s going to be about cars and everything else.”
Returning to his usual point of talk that the US is being unfairly treated in trade, Trump insisted that the US would take “everything from them” while the 27-member union does not accept US cars and produce.
The EU is currently imposes a 10% tariff on US vehicle imports. This is four times the US tariffs on European passenger car imports.
The US also imposes a 25% tariff on imported pickup trucks.
“Look, honestly, the European Union was formed to ruin the US,” Trump said.
“That’s the purpose and they did a good job of it. But now I’m the president.”
Trump’s comments drew a quick response from the European Commission, the executive arm of the Bullock.
“The EU will respond firmly to unfair barriers to free and fair transactions, including when tariffs are used to challenge legal and non-discriminatory policies,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The EU will always protect European businesses, workers and consumers from unfair tariffs.”
Other European observers provided a more pointed response to Trump’s claims.
“Trump hates the EU,” said Gerald Arrowd, former US ambassador to France, at X.
“He doesn’t know exactly what it is, but he hates it.”
Swedish Prime Minister Karl Bildt from 1991 to 1994 said Trump had a “seriously distorted” view of EU history.
“In fact, it was established to prevent wars on the continent of Europe,” Bildt said in X.
Trump’s latest trade salvo has seen tensions over international affairs growing amid rising tensions between Washington and Brussels over his administration’s “America-first” approach.
In addition to robbing trade tensions, Trump has spurred concerns about the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with his commitment to Europe’s security and outreach on Russian President Vladimir Putin and verbal attacks on Ukrainian Voldimir Zelenkiti.
With Trump pledging to quickly end the war in Ukraine, officials in Kiev and Brussels fear that the US president is leaning towards hitting a peace deal that is heavily supportive of Russia.
On Monday, German waiting Prime Minister Friedrich Merz said his country must achieve “independence” from the United States, as “the Americans, or at least this part of the Americans… is crucial to the fate of Europe.”
His Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) Alliance seeks to form a coalition government after winning the most seats in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, it is unclear whether NATO will exist in its current form by mid-year.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to ease concerns about NATO’s future and called on European governments to invest more in their own defenses.
“My response is that NATO is not in danger. The only thing that puts NATO at risk is the fact that we have little or no military force or that we have a NATO alliance that is less capable because the military spent 40 years without spending any money on it,” Rubio said when asked about Mertz’s comments.
“These are particularly rich countries in Western Europe,” Rubio added.
“They have a lot of money. They should invest it in national security, and they don’t.”