Are Europeans Doing an About Face on Trade, Tariffs, and Trump?

No doubt the transnational elite are just as angry today as they were last week about Trump’s tariffs, his rejection of globalism, his recalibration of European relations, and Trumpism in general. 

But they are also abandoning their tough talk and reaching out to Donald Trump in hopes of cutting a deal on all these issues because, for all the storm, strife, and sniveling about Trumpism, they are slowly realizing that Europe is wholly dependent on US subsidies for their way of life. 

I have plenty of resentment about Europe’s superior attitude and casual bullying of America on issues of speech and foreign policy, but that last bit about the US subsidizing Europe is not hyperbole. It is a simple fact. As Karoline Leavitt pointed out, the French and British would be speaking German, but for the fact that the US saved their butts during the 20th century, and the Russians would be ruling over Western Europe but for the US support for NATO. 

And since the end of the Cold War the US is even more of a benefactor to Europe–as the US pulls back, at least rhetorically, from NATO, the Europeans have discovered that they are–at least–underinvesting in defense by nearly a trillion dollars. Countries are talking about drafts, going on a war footing, and will soon discover that without US intelligence transfers, their “kill chains” will be incomplete. All those space assets are not cheap. 

Their access to space would be nearly nonexistent, and the price of their pharmaceuticals would skyrocket–the US subsidizes pharmaceutical research by paying much higher prices for drugs. 

BREAKING: The European Union is suddenly ready to negotiate for “zero-for-zero” tariffs with the United States after running their mouth about retaliating.

Trump’s tariffs are working.pic.twitter.com/hSZITdsjlm

— George (@BehizyTweets) April 7, 2025

Keir Starmer has openly declared globalism dead, and countries around the world are rushing to Washington to renegotiate trade deals, including 0% tariffs on US goods. 

Starmer admits globalisation has not worked for many. Great first step but can he now stop dismissing those people as populists and bigots? They’re just voters who’ve not benefited from free trade and mass immigration. https://t.co/yI8r3pO6pt

— Harriet Sergeant (@HarrietSergeant) April 6, 2025

As I have said multiple times, I am agnostic about the Trump tariffs because we have yet to see the results. Is Trump actually moving the world to a freer trade regime? That isn’t consistent with SOME of his rhetoric, but is with his bragging that countries are rushing to Washington with offers to lower or eliminate their own trade barriers to US goods in exchange for lower tariffs on their products. 

Trump is actually quite ambiguous about his ultimate goal–not about the effects on the US economy, but on the policies he is looking to implement long term. Until we see the actual results none of us really knows because Trump is a transactional negotiator, not a policy-driven/ideologically driven man. His concern is results, not consistency between what he says and what actually happens. 

He is a wheeler/dealer. 

2/ Trump said it plainly in his State of the Union: if you charge us 300%, we’ll charge you 300%. If you charge us 0%, we’ll charge you zero.

We’re a consumer economy. They’re export economies. Guess who gets hurt in that equation. #BuyAmerican pic.twitter.com/sOlTP3ndmj

— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) April 7, 2025

It is no doubt true that there is a lot of pain around the world right now, but Trump has shown he is perfectly willing to endure short-term pain for long-term gain. The short-term pain is here. Will the long-term gain follow?

pic.twitter.com/xBfvRH1AFS

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 7, 2025

We’ll see. There is lots of confidence on both sides of the debate, and the ideological division is not so much between Republicans and Democrats but between people who are Trump-all-the-way and Trump skeptics. Lots of good Republicans are joining Democrats in their criticism, although for different reasons. They are believers in the current trade consensus as the best system we can get; Trump thinks he can get a better deal and is playing a high-risk game to get there. 

Trump is writing a new global paradigm!

— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 7, 2025

Whatever the case, we have seen a very rapid shift in European (and other countries’) attitudes as they begin to grasp that talk is cheap while actions are not. The US economy IS the world economy is a very real way. When the US economy sneezes, the rest of the world gets the flu. 

The Sun’s @JackElsom analyses Keir Starmer’s response to Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“While they are obviously threatening retaliatory tariffs, it seems at the moment that they’re going to be no position to do that.” pic.twitter.com/VkvAURu2Th

— Talk (@TalkTV) April 7, 2025

That isn’t a boast. It is reality. And Trump is leveraging that fact. European pride is hurt very badly, but Trump doesn’t give a rip. Every one of those countries in Europe has bullied us, campaigned for Democrats in our country, tried to censor US citizens, threatened astronomical fines against US social media companies for allowing free speech, and insulted us for years. 

It’s about time they took a hit to their pride, not because we should get revenge, but because their hubris has led to this point.