Trump Promises Tariffs on ‘Atrocity’ European Union But Teases Exception for ‘Nice’ Britain

The United States has a large trade deficit with the United Kingdom which “can be worked out” but the “atrocity” of European Union’s posture against American exports has made tariffs inevitable, he said.

President Donald Trump spoke to journalists at Andrews Air Force Base of his coming tariff regime, following announcements on levies to be imposed on Mexico, Canada, and China to say more would be coming for the European Union. President Trump had previously said that he would “absolutely” impose tariffs on Europe because the bloc had treated the United States “terribly”, but in his latest remarks teased the United Kingdom with its “nice” Prime Minister could join the select club of nations that wouldn’t be hit with punitive measures.

While President Trump made clear the United Kingdom was still in a position where it had a bad trade deficit for the United States, evidently its comparatively newfound — and to date woefully underutilised — position as an independent nation able to make its own decisions leaves it able to sidestep the tariff regime if it wished to. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s personal relationship with the President — which he has been putting great deal of effort into cultivating of late, including forcing his subordinates into humiliating public renouncements of their previous criticisms of Trumps — has a key part to play, he stated.

Speaking on the tarmac at Andrews, President Trump said of the European Union: “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them. Millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products.”

The United Kingdom is “way out of line” but “the European Union is really out of line” in comparison, the President said. He continued: “The UK is out of line, but I’m sure that, I think that one can be worked out. But the European Union is an atrocity what they’ve done… well, Prime Minister Starmer has been very nice, we’ve had a couple of meetings. We’ve had numerous phone calls, we’re getting along very well. And we’ll see whether we can balance out our budget.”

“Obviously” the same could not be said for the European Union, Trump said.

A 2024 review of the trade relationship between the EU and the U.S. by Dutch banking multinational ING noted “Trump has a point regarding tariffs on cars, agriculture, and food”. It stated  the U.S. charged 2.5 per cent on imported European cars, but Brussels charges 10 per cent on imported American vehicles. The EU also charges considerably more than America for food, beverages, tobacco, and vegetable oils.

The report warned of strains “further eroding the EU’s struggling manufacturing sector”, and that the EU is already in a comparatively weaker position to face down President Trump now than it was in his first term, when the continent’s economy was healthier. “A looming new trade war could push the eurozone economy from sluggish growth into recession”, it stated.

Now, the response of the European Union to the various changes in the world order against their wishes is repeatedly discussed in the Brussels-focused media as “fury”. Politico, for instance, today reminds of one such move by the United Kingdom to telegraph to Washington that it is ready to play ball, after London unilaterally announced it would be postponing its adoption of “global banking rules” the day before inauguration last month.

It reported this development was an “early sign of which way the U.K. may move on its prized financial services industry” and that the fundamental choice faced by London and Frankfurt — the EU banking capital — is whether to push ahead with the globalist compact to “show their faith in international rulemaking” or wait and see what Washington does next. Else, Politico notes, London risks “creating a competitive disadvantage with America’s banking giants” by loading on new rules while America frees itself.

Britain’s beleaguered finance chief implicitly nodded to the freedoms of Brexit last month when talking around this area, having said: “We’ve gone ahead of other European countries… We’ve had that flexibility. We can be more nimble. We are taking advantage of that.”

The European Commission responded to Trump’s tariffs over the weekend initially in the language of the global economic orthodoxy that has ruled for decades, warning they would cause economic disruption and inflation, while then going on to warn they would be willing to play the same game if Trump didn’t relent.

The French government appears, once again, to be at the forefront of this notion, with Macron government minister Marc Ferracci demanding a “biting” response to America and stating “it is obvious we must react”. The governor of France’s central bank Villeroy de Galhau called Trump’s approach “very brutal”.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas meanwhile appeared to be attempting to appeal to President Trump’s other interests, claiming if the United States and Europe ended up imposing tariffs on each other, China would be “laughing on the side”.