The EU is promising retaliation against American exports if the president follows through with a plan for steel and aluminum tariffs.
President Donald Trump says the U. S. “will simply apply a TAX” on cars made in Europe if the European Union retaliates against the trade penalties he’s seeking on imports of steel and aluminum.
The EU is promising retaliation against American exports if Trump follows through — as he says he will next week.
The president tweeted: “If the E. U. wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on U. S. companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the U. S. They make it impossible for our cars (and more) to sell there. Big trade imbalance!”
He also railed about “very stupid” trade deals by earlier administrations and says other countries “laugh at what fools our leaders have been. No more!”
Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have learned to ignore Trump policy whims. They know that whatever he says one day on guns, immigration or other complicated issues could well change by the next. But his move on tariffs provoked rarely seen urgency.
They’re scrambling to convince the president that he would spark a trade war that could stall the economy’s recent gains if he doesn’t reverse course. The issue pits Trump’s populist promises to his voters against GOP free trade orthodoxy and the interests of business leaders.
“I love the president, but people disagree sometimes,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, tried one of the most direct lines that lawmakers have to the White House: talking to Trump through cable TV news.
“The president has not yet issued these tariffs,” Brady told Fox News on Thursday, hours after Trump announced the tariff targets. “He’s been continuing to listen.”
