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Trump May 'Sanction' EU with 50% Tariff

May 25—President Donald Trump has refused calls from the European Union and its leading countries to drop new, harsher sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s Russia in an effort to force an “unconditional” ceasefire in NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine. Instead, Trump views Europe and NATO as primary obstacles to ending the war, accusing them of enabling what he has privately called “deranged behavior” by NATO-backed Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump has stated that Zelenskyy refuses to acknowledge the reality that he has lost the war, lost over a million citizens, destroyed his country, and lost part of it to Russia—due to a conflict that, with NATO’s backing, he provoked by attacking Russian-speaking populations in Ukraine and stripping them of their rights. According to Trump, the war “never should have started.”

Tariffs Against EU 

On May 23, Trump announced that he may instead sanction the Europeans—not over Ukraine, but over their failure to negotiate an end to trade barriers against American goods and services. Declaring that he is “not looking for a deal with the EU,” Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff, more than double the 20% “reciprocal” tariff introduced in April.

“Their powerful trade barriers, VAT taxes, ridiculous corporate penalties, non-monetary trade barriers, monetary manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against American 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,” he wrote in a May 23 Truth Social post.

“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” Trump added. “Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”

Later that day, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he reinforced his position: “I’m not looking for a deal. We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50%.”

While Trump extended an olive branch, it was not to European leaders backing Zelenskyy’s continued fight against Russia, but to industrialists and business leaders: “If somebody comes in and wants to build a plant here, I can talk to them about a little bit of a delay.”

European Leaders Push Back

Maroš Šefčovič, European Commissioner for Trade, responded that any deal between the EU and the U.S. must be based on “mutual respect, and not threats.”

“The EU is fully engaged, committed to securing a deal that works for both,” he wrote in a May 23 post on X, adding that the European Commission “remains ready to work in good faith.”

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant disagreed. In an interview on Fox News, he remarked that “EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners.”

“I’m not going to negotiate on TV, but I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU,” Bessant said, adding that the “EU has a collective action problem.”

It's All Connected

The escalating trade tensions triggered a sharp downturn in European markets, with U.S. indexes also affected—until an announcement that talks between the Trump administration and China would proceed to strike a workable trade deal. Trump’s tariffs and Chinese countermeasures have been suspended while negotiations take place.

“Now no one, at least in public, is going to say that Trump was also acting against European interference in the Ukraine peace process,” said a source close to the White House. “They don’t have to say anything. In the Trumpverse, everything is connected. There is going to be a new round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine soon, at which Trump hopes to see a real proposal for a ceasefire emerge. That can only happen if the Europeans don’t push Zelenskyy to refuse concessions. With June 1 rapidly approaching, let’s see if the president might have gotten the message across.”

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