Donald Trump has threatened to hit the European Union with a “substantial tariff” and a trade investigation after the bloc fined Google €890m ($1bn) for abusing its dominance in online advertising.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the EU would pay a “very big price” for what he called the “robbing of American companies”. “The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” he wrote.
“Trump threatens new EU tariffs and investigation after €890m Google fine, calling bloc a 'piggybank'.”
Trump said any fines against Google, as well as Apple, Meta and Amazon, should be “entirely reversed”. He claimed Apple had been fined $15bn, Meta $3bn and Amazon $2.5bn. A spokesman for Google, José Castañeda, said the company had “worked hard to comply” with Europe’s rules but “expressed our concerns” about the European Commission’s decisions. “We appreciate the engagement by the administration and US government,” he added.
The tariff threat came just one day after Trump announced new tariffs on 60 trading partners, including the EU, the UK and China, of between 10% and 12.5%. Trump said he was “immediately initiating a 301 investigation” – a process under US trade law that allows Washington to strike back at practices deemed unfair. The second Trump administration has launched several such investigations since last year.
The European Commission fined Google for operating in a way that squeezed out competitors to its services. Trump’s intervention follows a pattern: shortly before his election in 2024, he said Apple chief executive Tim Cook had called him to complain about EU fines. Apple had recently lost a long-running dispute over unpaid taxes.
Representatives of Meta, Apple, Amazon and the European Commission have been approached for comment. The escalating dispute risks sharpening transatlantic trade tensions just as Trump’s new tariffs take effect.