Trump comes out on top with EU tariffs deal, proving haters wrong and leaving some Europeans stunned

President Donald Trump set to work in April on radically transforming how trade is conducted internationally, unveiling a sweeping list of new tariffs targeting scores of nations — friendly and adversarial nations alike — that have long imposed higher fees on the U.S. than the U.S. has placed on them in return.

Trump has in the months since received a lot of flak from liberals at home and abroad over this campaign to end the trend of foreign nations ripping off America. There have, for instance, been legal challenges, condemnations by Democrats and even some Republicans, threats of retaliation, and constant media chatter about economic doom.

'It's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability.'

Trump has, however, surmounted the opposition, proven the haters wrong, and repeatedly come out on top.

The president's latest victory — announced in the ancestral homeland of his mother just days after striking a favorable trade agreement with Japan — is likely his most consequential to date.

Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen jointly announced in Turnberry, Scotland, on Sunday that they struck a deal.

Per the terms of the agreement, the EU will buy $750 billion worth of energy over the next three years; invest $600 billion in the U.S. in addition to what it is already investing; open member countries to tariff-free American exports; and purchase "a vast amount" of American military equipment at a value that has yet to be determined.

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Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The U.S. will, in return, impose a 15% import tariff on most European goods — half of the rate Trump planned to impose on Aug. 1 in the event the deal fell through and 12.5% less than the tariff currently imposed on European automotive exports to the United States.

"I think it's great that we made a deal today instead of playing games," Trump told von der Leyen.

"I think it's the biggest deal ever made. Thank you very much."

Von der Leyen, who in 2021 claimed that Trump's first term may have "permanently damaged" democracy, said, "We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world. It's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability that's very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic."

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Von der Leyen later noted that Trump is "a tough negotiator, but he is also a dealmaker."

While von der Leyen said that the 15% tariff might be a "challenge for some," she emphasized that the deal ensures continued access to the American market while Europe simultaneously diversifies to other regions of the world and taps new markets.

'It is a dark day.'

"The European Union is going to open its 20 Trillion dollar market and completely accept our auto and industrial standards for the first time ever," noted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

"Today is a historic day for U.S. trade and will strengthen our relationship with the European Union for decades to come."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised Trump, stating that the president "is the world’s great negotiator, and the American people are the beneficiaries."

A number of national leaders from the 27 EU member states who will have to sign off on the deal expressed optimism, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said she considered it a "positive." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the agreement, noting in a statement, "It is good that Europe and the U.S. have agreed and avoid unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations."

Others weren't so keen.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou suggested on X that "it is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission."

"It is obvious to me that this is not an agreement," said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. "It wasn't a deal that President Donald Trump made with Ursula von der Leyen — it was Trump eating von der Leyen for breakfast. This is what happened."

Orbán suggested that Trump's deal with the United Kingdom was far better and that von der Leyen was a "featherweight," reported Euractiv.

Trump has now secured critical trade deals with China, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Britain, and Vietnam.

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