Donald Trump Throws a Tax Bomb at Emmanuel Macron
The White House is using France’s digital tax in an attempt to divide and rule in the EU. It’s a big test of whether Europe’s leaders will stand by Paris.
Divide and conquer.
Photographer: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFPPresident Donald Trump has been hunting for reasons to extract trade concessions from the European Union with the eagerness of a dog scrabbling around for a bone buried in the back yard.
First came Germany’s $24 billion car trade surplus with the U.S., with Trump coming close to labeling the import of cars made by BMW AG, Mercedes and Volkswagen AG as a threat to America’s national security (before he granted a reprieve). Then there was a World Trade Organization ruling on Airbus SE’s long-running subsidy fight with Boeing Co., which gave the White House enough ammunition to threaten tariffs on at least $11 billion in European goods under the cloak of fair trade.