US President Donald Trump during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. <\/p>\n
Will Oliver | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump<\/a> on Friday threatened to launch a trade investigation to “nullify” what he said were discriminatory fines being levied by Europe against U.S. tech firms such as Google<\/a> and Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n “We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies,” Trump wrote on Truth Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n He issued the threat hours after Google caught a nearly $3.5 billion penalty<\/a> from the European Union in a major antitrust case centered on the search giant’s advertising technology business.<\/p>\n The post also came the day after Trump hosted a dinner at the White House with a gaggle of top tech executives, who took turns praising the president.<\/p>\n Google CEO Sundar Pichai thanked Trump after a U.S. judge issued a favorable ruling in the landmark antitrust case against Alphabet. Pichai said he appreciated the administration’s “constructive dialogue.”<\/p>\n The president complained in his social media post that Europe was “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs.”<\/p>\n “This is on top of the many other Fines and Taxes that have been issued against Google and other American Tech Companies, in particular,” Trump wrote. “Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it!”<\/p>\n