President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the European Union was born to "screw" the United States, laying bare his hostility to the longtime U.S. partner as he detailed new tariffs.
Trump's month back in the White House has been marked by soaring friction within the Western bloc, with the United States abruptly shifting gears on support for Ukraine and Germany's likely next leader urging Europe to seek defense independence from Washington.
"Look, let's be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States," Trump told reporters as he gathered his cabinet for the first time. "That's the purpose of it, and they've done a good job of it. But now I'm president."
The United States for decades cheered on European integration, seeing the formation of the European Union in 1993 as a historic achievement to end conflict on a continent ravaged by two world wars.
Trump applauded Britain when it left the European Union and has taken a strident "America First" policy, vowing to pursue self-interest above any abstract concepts of partnership.
Trump said at his cabinet meeting that the European Union has "really taken advantage of us."
The United States had a trade deficit to the 27-nation bloc of $235.6 billion last year, according to official U.S. figures.
Asked if he had made a decision on tariff levels for the European Union, Trump added: "We'll be announcing it very soon and it'll be 25 percent, generally speaking."
He said that cars would be among the products to be hit -- grim news for Germany whose export-driven economy has been in a slump.
Trump has also slapped tariffs on U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico as well as rival China, citing issues including illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling.
Trump, who has made the deportation of mostly non-Western undocumented immigrants a top priority, acknowledged his origins in Europe, saying wryly: "I guess I'm from there at some point a long time ago, right?"
But whatever the common heritage, tensions have risen sharply with the European Union on a series of issues starting with Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas was visiting Washington on Wednesday and had earlier announced that she would meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The meeting was canceled, with a European Union spokesman citing "scheduling issues." Trump, however, saw French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and meets British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.
On Monday, the United States sided with Russia and against nearly all European allies at the United Nations in backing a resolution that called for a swift end to the war without insisting on Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Trump insisted Wednesday it was up to Europe, not the United States, to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, even as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to fly to Washington to sign an agreement giving US control of much of his country's mineral wealth.
"We're going to have Europe do that," Trump said. "Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we're going to make sure everything goes well."
The winner of Germany's election on Sunday, Friedrich Merz, is a longstanding supporter of the transatlantic alliance but has warned not to be under illusions about Trump.
Merz said that Europe must move quickly to "achieve independence" from the United States on defense matters.
Rubio, in an interview broadcast Wednesday with Fox News, said that the NATO alliance was "not in jeopardy" but that Europe needed to spend more on its own defense.
"We're not saying do your own thing. We're saying do more. It's their continent, right?" he said.
© 2025 AFP
16 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
If this were a child, one might respond, "it's not all about you". Unfortunately there is no hope of an adult of these years getting the message.
Underworld
Trump is clueless about history. The formation of the European Economic Community (forerunner of the EU), was encouraged by the United States.
TokyoLiving
And US was born to screw the whole world..
I'veSeenFootage
Oh look, another subject Trump knows absolutely nothing about.
chotto_2
Hopefully there's still time.
starpunk
Remember how he acted the last time around, tossing those Starbursts on the table?
Now he's acting like the spoiled brat that he is, 'Nyah nyah nyah!'.
The EU is economic union and it doesn't concern you, Diaper Don Dictator. At the same time, you don't believe in NATO either which is more important. Oh yeah, that's right. Your loyalty is to Russia. Ahem. Pardon me.
Why does anybody even acknowledge or listen to what this blabbering moron says?
He sez, he sez, he sez......he says nothing intelligent or important. trump is a worthless nobody. The world should ignore this criminal. His shame is visible and apparent to all, he is an absolute disgrace and a scourge.
bass4funk
But he’s right.
Oh, it does, In Fiscal Year 2024, the United States achieved a record in Foreign Military Sales with total arms sales to foreign governments reaching $318.7 billion, a 29% increase from the previous year.
Poland Approved purchases of AGM-158B-2 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles valued at $1.77 billion, AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles for $1.69 billion, and AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder Missiles worth $219.1 million.
Italy: Approved acquisition of AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles and related equipment estimated at $90.6 million.
Romania: Received approval for the purchase of GBU-39B Small Diameter Bombs and related equipment.
It’s to the U.S. and more importantly, to not send us to another unwindable war and if that means, Our adversaries egos need to be flossed a bit in order to minimize the risk, it’s a small price to play, pride won’t keep the nation safe or us out of wars.
He’s the President, simple.
lincolnman
Yea, unlike Russia and China, the EU has all those nuclear weapons aimed at us...
What an absolute Moron...
He's nothing but Putin's lapdog - and get ready for him to flip and call Xi a "genius" too...
theFu
Trump has said it himself a number of times, he doesn't read. If you don't read, that means you learn slowly only what is spoon fed by someone else.
Seems Trump got his learnin' from TV. Not a good place to gain knowledge, especially in Trump's world of talking heads and canceled PBS.
To all of Europe, I'm so sorry that less than 50% of American voters were able to elect Trump. Had all the 3rd party voters who didn't vote for either candidate actually voted for Harris, the world wouldn't be going through 5 firedrills every day from a petty, petty, man-child who perpetually needs a nap.
JJE
Trump knows about this. More so, he knows about how it is kind of a recurring trend, to put it mildly.
Another way to phrase it: getting screwed.
I'veSeenFootage
Thank you for posting numbers of the US selling expensive military equipment to the EU, thus proving that the EU is not "screwing" the US. In other words, you just owned yourself.
Should someone call 119? I think he's having a stroke.
Tokyo Guy
Nonsense. Nobody "screws" the US better than the man currently sitting in the Oval Office.
Desert Tortoise
One of the hard lessons taught the US and Europe by the horrors of WWII. Instead of the beggar thy neighbor trade policies of the pre-WWII era the allies and the newly vanquished nations of Europe sat down and determined that in the future trade and commerce would be used to unify the nations of Europe, make their people prosperous and happy and in this way prevent the wars that plagued Europe for centuries. And since WWII it has worked. Former enemies get along trading with each other and cooperating on a host of matters. Undoing that would be a great tragedy and probably lead to a resumption of the endless warring the Common Market and EU were intended to prevent.
Bob Fosse
So in your universe the EU is ‘screwing’ the US by buying record levels of US made arms?
Why did you post that?
Desert Tortoise
The US trade deficit is a problem created entirely by the US. The US hands its trading partners the means to have perpetual trade surpluses with the US by the habit of the US running budget deficits since the Reagan Administration, with the exception of the final two years of the Clinton Administration when the US had very small budget surpluses.
The Fed has to sell US Treasury Notes to finance the budget deficits passed by Congress and signed into law by Presidents. US trade partners use the excess US Dollars they earn from their trade surpluses to buy up these US Treasury Notes. If they didn't the surplus of US Dollars abroad would drive their value down, making US goods cheaper in trade while making the goods of US trade partners more expensive. If the US wasn't running budget deficits constantly those excess US Dollars abroad losing value would quickly self correct any trade imbalance. But the US keeps running budget deficits and doing so hands US trade partners the means to perpetuate their trade surpluses with the US. Then the US has the gall to accuse these nations of taking advantage of the US. It's bull___t. The problem is one created by the US and one that only the US can solve by running a balanced budget and paying down its debt. Blaming this problem on the nations the US trades with is vile, nothing but lies.
Oh, US trade partners could also simply refuse to buy any more debt and maybe start selling the debt they have. That would put the US in a severe depression. Keep pushing and don't be too surprised when the US trade partners do this.
starpunk
What would you expect from a convicted RAPIST?
Kimmy boy too. 'I wanna be like him, I love him soooo much! Mu-mu mu-mu-mu!'