The purpose of founding the EU was to “screw” the United States, President Donald Trump said in Washington on Wednesday as he promised to slap tariffs on cars.
“The European Union was formed to screw the United States, that’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it,” Trump told reporters at his first cabinet meeting in the White House.
Trump was commenting on his plans to impose 25% tariffs on cars and other goods. The US president objects to the EU’s trade surplus with the US in goods, arguing that it’s exploitative.
He said he had “made a decision” to impose tariffs that he would announce “very soon.” He added, “it’ll be 25%, generally speaking, and that’ll be on cars and all other things.” He did not specify whether the tariffs would apply solely to European imports, or worldwide imports.
“They’ve really taken advantage of us,” he said of the EU on Wednesday. “They don’t accept our cars, they don’t accept essentially our farm products. They use all sorts of reasons why not, and we accept everything of them.”
He went on to say that he loves the countries of the EU. “I guess I’m from there at some point a long time ago, but indirectly…. well, pretty directly, too I guess – but I love the countries of Europe.”
Trump’s mother was born in Scotland while his paternal grandfather immigrated to the US from Germany.
He added that he loves “all countries,” then immediately said, twice, that the EU was formed to “screw” the US.
When asked what will happen when the EU imposes retaliatory tariffs, he said. “They can’t. They can try, but they can’t.”
“They can do it and they can try but the numbers can never equal ours, because we can go off. We are the pot of gold, we are the one that everybody wants,” he said. “They can retaliate, but it cannot be a successful retaliation because we just go cold turkey. We just don’t buy anymore. And if that happens, we win.”
