{"id":133510,"date":"2025-05-26T14:58:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T14:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/133510\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T14:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T14:58:13","slug":"trumps-latest-tarriffs-threat-to-the-eu-is-his-most-offensive-yet-news-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/133510\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s latest tarriffs threat to the EU is his most offensive yet | News US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"President
\n\t\tTo understand why his gambit is doomed, we need to start in the ruins of 1945 (Picture: AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a> has a new target for his strong\u2011man schtick: the European Union<\/a> \u2013 and he\u2019s threatening 50% tariffs<\/a> because 27 democracies won\u2019t salute one man\u2019s whim.<\/p>\n

\u2018The European Union\u2026 has been very difficult to deal with,\u2019 the POTUS wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social<\/a>, on Friday. \u2018Our discussions with them are going nowhere!\u2019<\/p>\n

He then gave a deadline of June 1, which he later pushed back to July 9 to allow more time for negotiations after European leaders<\/a> said they were ready to respond with their own measures.<\/p>\n

Within minutes of the initial announcement, the Nasdaq and S&P\u202fslid, and London\u2019s FTSE\u202f100 shuddered before clawing back only a sliver.<\/p>\n

To understand why his gambit is doomed, we need to start in the ruins of 1945.<\/p>\n

Europe was bombed flat, 70\u202fmillion dead, and neighbours eyeing each other like bar\u2011brawl rivals.<\/p>\n

From this came an offer from the French in 1950 to pool coal and steel \u2013 necessary to make tanks and guns \u2013 so thoroughly that a future war would be both unthinkable and materially impossible.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\tTrump doesn\u2019t like the EU (Picture: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Six nations signed up within a year.<\/p>\n

Peace first prosperity second. That is the foundation of the EU<\/a>: born to ensure the horrors of a world war could never materialise again.<\/p>\n

Then came the Common Market, which ensured economic and social progress through the free movement of goods, people, and services. This meant tearing down tariffs, standardising product rules, and letting workers follow jobs across borders. Invest in regions, lift up communities and encourage collaboration.<\/p>\n

Hardly surprising, then, that a leader who bristles at a millimetre of constraint despises a project deliberately designed to make unilateralism impossible.<\/p>\n

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So, of course, Trump doesn\u2019t like the EU<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s democratic, plural and procedural, which is everything a dressed-up con man finds exasperating.<\/p>\n

Intentional as it is, though, that painstaking design does have side effects. Making deals can be slow. Really slow.<\/p>\n

Negotiating with 27 separately elected governments under the EU\u2019s banner is not light work; a trade deal with Canada took seven years, and Australia five \u2013 the latter not resulting in a deal being met.<\/p>\n

But that level of scrutiny is the point. The EU was engineered after 1945 so that no single leader \u2013 no matter how vain, vengeful, or short\u2011tempered \u2013 could unilaterally yank the economic lever and send tanks rolling.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"WASHINGTON,
\n\t\tHe treats trade like an episode of reality TV (Picture: Tasos Katopodis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s very issue with the EU is one of its greatest assets.<\/p>\n

By contrast, he treats trade like an episode of reality TV: threatens the contestants, waits for screams, and cuts to commercials.<\/p>\n

Democratic procedure and distributed power, like the EU\u2019s, is kryptonite to a man who denies he lost an election<\/a>, strikes deals on a whim and measures success by tweets and followers, not meaningful change.<\/p>\n

Mere whispers of a 25% tariff on iPhones<\/a> sent Apple shares plummeting, pension funds gasped as markets lurched, while Allianz warned over half of American firms will raise prices to cover Trump tariffs.<\/p>\n

And Britain? Post\u2011Brexit, we sit squarely in the blast radius, wedged between the continent we\u2019ve just divorced and the ex\u2011colonial sweetheart we\u2019re desperate to impress.<\/p>\n

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Those 50% tariffs on EU exports will slam straight into us.<\/p>\n

German gearboxes in Sunderland\u2011built Nissans, Irish beef shipped through Holyhead, and French medicines stocked by the NHS will all jump in price because they\u2019re stamped with \u2018Made in EU\u2019 somewhere along the way.<\/p>\n

Westminster politicians spend all day scrabbling around to paint a picture of post\u2011Brexit Britain<\/a> as a sovereign, free\u2011trading nation.<\/p>\n

But the reality is that we have a couple of measly deals with the US, Australia, and New Zealand, all of which combined are estimated toaccount for less than 4% of the trade we had with the EU before we cut ourselves off.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"File
\n\t\tThe Union remains the world\u2019s most successful and enduring peace project (Picture: Steve Parsons\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Aside from the reputational hurt, Britain risks becoming collateral damage in a brawl where we have no seat at the table and no veto over the rules. But despite the UK\u2019s tragic and chaotic departure<\/a>, the EU\u2019s original mission is as strong today as it was when it was formed.<\/p>\n

The Union remains the world\u2019s most successful and enduring peace project. Nothing the planet has ever seen has done more to unite former enemies after such catastrophic bloodshed.<\/p>\n

Trump wheezes that the EU is undemocratic, even as he fumes that 27 parliaments refuse to rubber stamp his demands, but the infuriating consensus-based model is precisely what makes it resilient to the whims of any single autocrat, foreign or domestic.<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s messy, bureaucratic and infuriating, but when your baseline is 1914 to 1945, infuriating paperwork and slow-moving bureaucrats beat smouldering cities and 100 million dead every time.<\/p>\n

So when Donald Trump snarls that the EU was \u2018formed to take advantage of the United States\u2019, he\u2019s turning the history book upside down.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s origin is not anti\u2011American, but anti\u2011war. We didn\u2019t unite to fleece America; we united so we would stop killing each other; America is still trying to catch up. Get there, Donald \u2013 then we\u2019ll talk.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Share your views in the comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tNews Updates<\/p>\n

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