President
Donald Trump
has threatened to introduce a 50 percent tariff on all goods imported into the U.S. from the European Union — and has explicitly stated that he will apply a 25 percent tax
tariff
on any
Apple
items unless the country’s top-valued tech business starts producing
iPhones
at home.
Trump turned to Truth Social to reiterate his frequent false assertion that the European Union was established “mainly to exploit the United States.”
trade
And he voiced his frustration saying that the 27-nation group “has been extremely challenging to work with” due to factors such as “formidable trade barriers, VAT taxes, absurd corporate penalties, non-monetary trade obstructions, monetary manipulations, baseless and unjust lawsuits targeting American companies, among others.”
He continued to complain about the over $250 billion trade shortfall between the U.S. and the E.U., noting that this figure specifically pertains to manufactured items yet significantly misrepresents reality once service purchases made by the U.S. are considered. He labeled this situation as “entirely unacceptable” and claimed that negotiations regarding trade with the E.U. aren’t making any progress.
He stated: “Hence, I propose implementing a flat 50% tariff on goods from the European Union effective June 1, 2025. No tariffs will apply if these products are produced or made within the United States. Thanks for considering this issue!”
Trump’s latest missive against America’s largest trading partner came just moments after he threatened to target America’s most valuable corporate citizen with a 25 percent tax on the the country’s most popular mobile phone unless it is fully manufactured within the U.S.
In a distinct post on Truth Social, he mentioned informing Apple’s CEO about it.
Tim Cook
Long ago,” he “expects” that iPhones intended for the U.S. market will be “produced and assembled in the United States, rather than in India or anywhere else.
“If that isn’t how it works, then Apple has to pay a tariff of at least 25% to the U.S.,” he stated.
Apple’s stock price dropped after Trump issued his threats.
The tech company experienced a decline of 3.5 percent in share value in future trades.
However, it rebounded by 2.8 percent during early trading after the president issued threats against the company via a post on Truth Social on Friday morning.
Trump’s post appeared to be a tacit admission that importers and consumers, rather than foreign countries, are responsible for paying the tariffs he has imposed and threatened to impose.
It remains ambiguous how the president might legally enforce a tariff solely on one particular import from just one firm, since U.S. legislation stipulates that tariffs invoked through the president’s emergency trade authority must target entire categories of goods originating from certain nations.
In the Oval Office on Friday, speaking about imposing tariffs on a specific company, Trump seemed to concede this point when questioned. His response was that the proposed import duties would also apply to “Samsung and anyone else producing that item.”
“Otherwise it wouldn’t be equitable,” he stated.
Trump added that the tariffs could be imposed “by the end of June.”
“When they construct their facility here, there won’t be any tariffs involved, so they will set up these plants locally. However, I had an agreement with him—the Apple CEO Tim Cook—that this wasn’t how things would proceed. He mentioned his plans to establish factories in India instead. I responded that it’s fine for them to head to India, but selling products back into our market will require imposing tariffs. That was my stance,” he stated.
However, should tariffs somehow be imposed on Apple’s smartphone lineup, Americans might end up paying an extra $200 for the base model of the iPhone 16, starting at $799 for the version with 128GB of storage. The higher-priced variant, the iPhone 16 Plus with identical storage capacity, would see an increase of around $224.
For the top-tier version of the iPhone 16 with 512GB storage, an additional $275 might be tacked onto the base price of $1,099.
In 2024, the United States represents Apple’s biggest market for iPhones, constituting 44 percent of the company’s revenues as per Statista data. Globally, iPhone sales made up 52 percent of all of Apple’s earnings this year, translating to $201 billion in income.
Furthermore, Trump’s suggested 50 percent tax on products coming into the United States from the European Union might impact various items imported from any of the 27 member nations within the EU. This range includes medications utilized by Americans for numerous health issues, as well as precise optics, electronic devices, and medical apparatuses, along with drinks like wines, spirits, and cars.
Apparel, shoes, leather items, beauty supplies, and perfumes, along with stationery, hardware, sports gear, utensils, and kitchenware might also face these additional import duties. This increase could add up to an extra fifty percent to their prices, making essential goods more difficult for U.S. consumers to purchase.
Since the United Kingdom is no longer part of the European Union, British goods wouldn’t face the proposed 50 percent tariff.
The two early morning warnings sent shockwaves through US futures and worldwide stock markets, causing them to decline rapidly following the publication of these messages.
The president’s warnings about imposing additional taxes on US consumers marks another twist in an up-and-down series of events that started on April 2nd. That was when he declared “freedom day” during his announcement in the White House Rose Garden and imposed substantial tariffs on every product entering the country from abroad.
Following declarations and counteractions led to import duties from China — the United States’ number three trade ally — being bumped up significantly to as high as 154 percent, which caused concerns about an economic downturn to escalate quickly amongst investors and experts alike.
Later, Trump retreated and consented to reduce most of the tariffs to a rate of 10 percent, which remains significantly higher than any import duties imposed in almost a hundred years. Additionally, early this month, he stated that the U.S. and China had concurred on steps to lessen tensions from the trade conflict he initiated merely weeks prior.
Nevertheless, the unpredictability stemming from his sporadic employment of tariffs as a heavy-handed tool intended to force compliance from both foreign nations and U.S. businesses has driven jittery investors to find safety elsewhere, including within the European Union. This shift poses a risk to the US dollar’s long-standing position as the global reserve currency.
The continuous tariff saga, coupled with decades of poor financial management by the U.S. Congress — mostly fueled by
Republicans
His push for retrogressive tax reductions along with higher expenditures financed through escalating borrowing led Moody’s to downgrade America’s credit rating for the first time in almost a hundred years last week.
The agency announced they were lowering it by one step from the top triple-A rating to Aa1 due to the government’s significant budget shortfall and elevated interest rates.
With the move, Moody’s catches up with the other two major credit rating agencies, which both downgraded the U.S. some time ago.
In a statement, Moody’s indicated that they observed no genuine initiative from the government aimed at reducing expenditures. They also anticipated that the country’s financial standing would decline relative to other advanced nations.
It was mentioned as well that President
Donald Trump
‘Tariffs will substantially harm the country’s long-term economic expansion, with expectations that the national debt will climb to around 134% of GDP by 2035.’
“This single-step reduction from our twenty-one step rating system indicates the rise throughout more than ten years in governmental debt and interest payment ratios, which have reached benchmarks notably above those of comparable-rated nations,” stated Moody’s.
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