Trump proposes slamming EU with YUGE tariffs to crush trade tyranny

President Donald Trump announced Friday morning that he is considering imposing a hefty tariff against the European Union in an effort to end trade tyranny.

In a post on Truth Social, he declared that he is weighing a 50% tariff against the EU to fix America's trade deficit.

'There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States.'

“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with,” he wrote. “Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable.”

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Photo by JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

According to Trump, the trade negotiations with the EU “are going nowhere.”

“Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025,” he declared. “There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Friday morning that Trump hopes to "light a fire under the EU."

"I've said before, [the] EU has a collective action problem here. It's 27 countries, but they're being represented by this one group in Brussels. So some of the feedback that I've been getting is that the underlying countries don't even know what the EU is negotiating on their behalf," Bessent explained.

Andrew Hale, a senior trade policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told Blaze News that Trump's post about the potential EU tariffs does not provide details about which statutory authority the president plans to use to impose such increases or whether it would be applied as a baseline rate. He noted that Trump suggested imposing a 20% tariff on the EU last month that he "quickly stayed until early July as part of his reciprocal trade policy."

Hale explained that Trump's announcement needed to be put "in its context."

"This is not an executive order; it's a statement on Truth Social," he said, adding that the president's remarks were published ahead of a holiday weekend, with the markets closed until Tuesday.

Hale told Blaze News that the EU should work with the Trump administration to reach a deal. However, he described the EU as having a "very slow and bureaucratic system" due to its many stakeholder countries.

"We're in a window of 90 days to get some of these very important deals done, and perhaps this [Trump's increased tariff threat] is rattling the bars of the European cage to try to get them to start seriously negotiating quickly, which is not their forte," Hale concluded.

Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Trump's 10% base tariff on all imports "a major blow to the world economy," warning that the EU was "preparing for further countermeasures, to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail."

The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Anything else?

In a separate announcement on Friday, Trump targeted Apple with threats of increased tariffs for making products outside the U.S. He called for a 25% fee on iPhones to pressure CEO Tim Cook to move the company's overseas manufacturing.

"I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their [iPhones] that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else," Trump wrote on social media. "If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S."

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Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., and U.S. President Donald Trump. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bessent also addressed Trump's proposed tariffs against Apple in comments to Fox News on Friday morning.

"Again, the president is trying to bring back precision manufacturing to the U.S.," Bessent stated. "And I think that one of our greatest vulnerabilities is this external production, especially in semiconductors, and a large part of Apple's components are in semiconductors, so we would like to have Apple help us make the semiconductor supply chain more secure."

Apple declined comment to CNBC.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional details as well as statements from Andrew Hale, a senior trade policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

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