{"id":150826,"date":"2025-05-24T14:29:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T14:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trumps-tariff-threat-risks-a-trade-war-with-europe-years-in-the-making-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T14:29:57","slug":"trumps-tariff-threat-risks-a-trade-war-with-europe-years-in-the-making-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trumps-tariff-threat-risks-a-trade-war-with-europe-years-in-the-making-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump's tariff threat risks a trade war with Europe years in the making – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The European Union<\/a> has pushed back against President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> latest suggestion that he will impose a 50% import tariff on all E.U. goods, warning that trans-Atlantic trade must be built on \u201crespect, not threats.\u201d
The rebuke came after Trump said in a Friday post on his Truth Social platform<\/a> that trade negotiations with Brussels<\/a> were \u201cgoing nowhere\u201d and suggested he would slap a 50% blanket duty on all European goods entering the U.S. starting June 1.
It was just the latest bellicose remark from Trump and came amid a broader souring of relations between the two global powers<\/a> that has seen months of distrust and economic sparring.
The E.U., home to nearly 450 million people, is the world\u2019s largest trading bloc and one of Washington\u2019s top commercial partners. It exported more than $600 billion in goods to the U.S. last year while importing goods worth around $370 billion.
Trump\u2019s latest broadside follows his April 2 \u201cLiberation Day\u201d<\/a> announcement of a 39% tariff on European goods, an idea he later walked back before he changed course again Friday with an even tougher stance.
Stephen Moore, a former economic adviser to Trump, told the BBC that his former boss was expressing his frustration with the E.U.
\u201cI think he was hoping that by now we would have the E.U. coming with some kind of deal on the table, and so far that hasn\u2019t come,\u201d he said, calling the 50% import tariffs a \u201cshot at the bow.\u201d
E.U. Trade Commissioner Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said late Friday that \u201cE.U.-U.S. trade is unmatched & must be guided by mutual respect, not threats,\u201d and that the bloc remains committed to securing \u201ca deal that works for both,\u201d following a call with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
While the E.U.\u2019s response signals a willingness to negotiate, discord has deepened between the bloc and its longtime trans-Atlantic ally over a return to the combative stance Trump took during his first administration, when he flew in the face of decades of cooperation and cast the E.U. as an economic rival.
In 2018, Trump said \u201cnobody treats us much worse than the European Union\u201d and argued the bloc was designed to exploit the U.S. He repeated that claim this year, describing the E.U. as being \u201cformed in order to screw the United States.\u201d
While the ideological architects of Trump’s first administration such as Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro have also gone on record criticizing the union, many in Trump\u2019s current inner circle have shared those sentiments.
Vice President J.D. Vance<\/a> lashed out in February at European leaders at a security conference in Munich over issues ranging from free speech to migration and defense, dealing a sucker punch to the European view of America as a steadfast cultural ally.
\u201cThe threat that I worry the most about vis-\u00e0-vis Europe,\u201d Vance said, \u201cis the threat from within \u2014 the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.\u201d
That came after Elon Musk<\/a> \u2014 the world\u2019s richest man, who also served as Trump\u2019s close adviser earlier in his second term \u2014 threw his support behind Germany\u2019s far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has called for Germany to leave the E.U.
Underlying much of the second Trump administration\u2019s animosity toward Europe has been security funding, most prominently over the war in Ukraine.
While the administration\u2019s view of the war in Ukraine has since softened, Vance has repeatedly opposed sending military aid to Kyiv, saying in February<\/a> that \u201cI don\u2019t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.\u201d
And in a Signal conversation between senior administration officials leaked in March,<\/a> the vice president initially resisted U.S. strikes in Yemen, arguing he didn\u2019t want to \u201cbail Europe out,\u201d while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that Europe was treating America like a \u201csucker\u201d by relying on it for defense.
While \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d\u2019s call for a \u201cdeal that works for both\u201d reflects the E.U.\u2019s characteristically restrained response to the Trump administration\u2019s jabs, Europe has been bracing itself for months for the possibility of a more distant economic relationship with the U.S. too.
Earlier this month, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said the bloc preferred to negotiate, \u201cbut not at any cost,\u201d before announcing more than $100 billion worth of possible retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods the following day.
Europe also appears to be preparing for a future without America\u2019s guarantee of European security against Russia. Germany this week deployed a permanent military brigade beyond its borders for the first time since the end of World War II.<\/a>
A brewing trade war with the bloc throws into relief the position of Britain, which voted to leave the E.U. in 2016, but recently signed a trade deal with Europe and an economic deal with the U.S.<\/a>
London appears to have sidestepped the steepest tariffs after Trump agreed last month to hold the levy on British goods at 10%, but the U.K. must now walk a delicate line: maintaining its \u201cspecial relationship\u201d with Washington while seeking closer alignment with its largest trading partner in Brussels.
But with tensions rising across the Atlantic, even allies risk being caught in the crossfire. The E.U. \u2014 a geopolitical heavyweight in its own right \u2014 is unlikely to take hefty U.S. tariffs lying down without making moves of its own.
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.\u00a0
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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