Donald Trump Says EU ‘As Bad As China’ On Trade

In his latest appearance on Fox News, Trump bashed the EU once again, defending his administration’s tariffs, The Hill reports. According to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the European Union is “as bad as China” when it comes to trade.

“The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller. It’s terrible what they do to us. I love those countries, Germany, and all of the countries. Scotland…. But they treat us very badly. They treat us very unfairly.”

While Trump may have – publicly and eagerly – flip-flopped on a number of issues, he has been remarkably consistent on trade, for better or for worse. As the Washington Post remarked, the current POTUS may have changed his mind on a lot of things, including party affiliation, but he has never changed when it comes to trade.

For over four decades, he has been a hardliner on the issue, displaying rock-solid consistency over the years. And just like today, the President has repeatedly refused to back down, prompting counter tariffs from the European Union. As BBC reported, the EU launched a set of retaliatory counter tariffs on June 20, taxing American exports such as whiskey, jeans, and motorbikes.

As the Inquisitr reported, the European Commission recently authored an alarming report, warning president Trump of the detrimental effect his tariffs could have, not only on American European allies, but on the United States as well, considering it is estimated that Trump’s 20 percent tariff on all U.S. imports of European Union-assembled cars could boomerang across the pond, potentially resulting in the loss of 180,000 American jobs.

Trump’s newest remarks expressed in a Fox News interview broadcast today, indicate that the president is willing to remain faithful to his decision, allegedly in an effort to bring U.S. trade partners to the negotiating table. President Trump may have refused to water down his hardliner trade philosophy, but he has been facing continuous, and largely bipartisan, pressure to tone down.

Trump’s insistence on protectionism seems to have caused a rift within his own party. According to Politico, a fraction of GOP senators is waging a war against Trump’s trade tariffs, lobbying, and pushing legislation that would allow Congress to block the president’s tariffs.

Major GOP financiers and billionaires, the Koch brothers, have gone one step further. As CNN reported, the Kochs launched an aggressive campaign against the POTUS, in an effort to combat and counter Trump’s protectionism.

“The Trump administration has taken some incredibly positive steps for the American economy, but tariffs will undercut that progress and needlessly hamstring our full economic potential. There are better ways to negotiate trade deals than by punishing American consumers and businesses with higher cost,” Tim Phillips, president of Koch-affiliated think tank Americans for Prosperity said in a statement.