President Donald Trump said the United States has a large trade deficit with the United Kingdom that “can be worked out,” but the European Union’s “atrocity” posture against American exports has made tariffs inevitable.
President Trump spoke to journalists at Andrews Air Force Base about his coming tariff regime following announcements on levies to be imposed on Mexico, Canada, and China, saying more would be coming for the European Union. President Trump had previously said that he would “absolutely” impose tariffs on Europe because the bloc had treated the United States “terribly”, but in his latest remarks teased the United Kingdom with its “nice” Prime Minister could join the select club of nations that wouldn’t be hit with punitive measures.
While President Trump made clear the United Kingdom was still in a position where it had a bad trade deficit with the United States, evidently, its comparatively newfound — and to date woefully underutilised — position as an independent nation able to make its own decisions leaves it able to sidestep the tariff regime if it wished to. (BBC screen shot/Trump)
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s personal relationship with the President — which he has been putting a great deal of effort into cultivating of late, including forcing his subordinates into humiliating public renouncements of their previous criticisms of Trump — has a key part to play, he stated.
MUST WATCH: @alexmarlow and @carney dunk on a drama-queen Canadian lawmaker acting indignant about Trump’s border demands:
“The tariffs got 10 feet higher!”
“Their ‘values’ are not keeping fentanyl out of the U.S.?” pic.twitter.com/SIIy3pLQZF— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 1, 2025
Speaking on the tarmac at Andrews, President Trump said of the European Union: “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them. Millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products.”
The United Kingdom is “way out of line” but “the European Union is really out of line” in comparison, the President said. He continued: “The UK is out of line, but I’m sure that, I think that one can be worked out. But the European Union is an atrocity what they’ve done… well, Prime Minister Starmer has been very nice, we’ve had a couple of meetings. We’ve had numerous phone calls, we’re getting along very well. And we’ll see whether we can balance out our budget.”
“Obviously” the same could not be said for the European Union, Trump said.
A 2024 review of the trade relationship between the EU and the U.S. by Dutch banking multinational ING noted that “Trump has a point regarding tariffs on cars, agriculture, and food.” The review stated that the U.S. charged 2.5 per cent on imported European cars, but Brussels charged 10 per cent on imported American vehicles. The EU also charges considerably more than America for food, beverages, tobacco, and vegetable oils.