Trump: Suggests Directly Imposing 50% Tariff on the EU Starting June 1

On May 23, U.S. President Trump stated on social media, "The main purpose of the formation of the EU is to take advantage of the U.S. in trade, and it has always been difficult to deal with them. Their strong trade barriers, value-added tax, ridiculous corporate penalties, non-monetary trade barriers, currency manipulation, and unfair and unreasonable lawsuits against U.S. companies, among others, have resulted in a trade deficit of over $250 billion per year with the EU, a figure that is completely unacceptable.

Our discussions with them have made no progress! Therefore, I suggest imposing a direct 50% tariff on the EU starting June 1, 2025. No tariffs will be applied if products are built or manufactured in the U.S."