US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union and launch a probe after accusing the bloc of unfairly targeting American technology companies through heavy antitrust fines.In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed the EU had repeatedly penalised major US firms, including Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon, describing the action as discriminatory and warning that his administration would retaliate.“The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” Trump wrote.The US president said Google had now been fined more than $18 billion by the European Union after being hit with another $1 billion penalty. He also alleged that Apple had been fined $15 billion, Meta $3 billion and Amazon $2.5 billion.Calling the fines “illegal and highly discriminatory”, Trump announced that the US would “immediately initiate a 301 Investigation” into what he described as Europe’s practice of “ROBBING” American companies and taxpayers.Section 301 of the US Trade Act allows the government to investigate and respond to foreign trade practices it considers unfair or discriminatory.Trump said the European Union would “pay a very big price” for its actions and warned that the penalties imposed on US companies would be “entirely reversed”.He also signalled that his administration expected to impose “a substantial TARIFF” on the European Union “at the earliest possible moment.”“The European Union is at it again and, as usual, taking direct aim at GREAT American Companies!” Trump said, adding that the alleged discriminatory treatment of US firms would not continue under his administration.He ended the post by telling followers to “Stay tuned!”
