EU was formed to screw USA – and they’ve done a good job of it

The European Union was formed to screw the United States, Donald Trump has declared.

Speaking during his first cabinet meeting, the US president said: “The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States, that’s the purpose of it. And they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.”

Claiming the EU had “taken advantage” of the US, Mr Trump said his administration planned to impose tariffs on the bloc “very soon”.

“It will be 25 per cent, generally speaking, and that will be on cars and all other things,” he told his appointees, who were gathered in the Cabinet Room.

The Republican leader claimed the EU’s trade relationship with the US was “a different case than Canada” because it had really taken advantage of us in a different way”.

Asked if the EU countries will retaliate in-kind to any US tariffs, Mr Trump replied: “They can’t I mean they can try, but they can’t.”

Mr Trump added: “We are the pot of gold. We’re the one that everybody wants, and they can retaliate, but it cannot be a successful retaliation, because we just go cold turkey, we don’t buy any more, and if that happens we win.”

He added: “They don’t accept our cars, they don’t accept, essentially, our farm products, they use all sorts of reasons why not, and we accept everything of them and we have about a $300 billion deficit with the European Union.”

The US’s trade deficit with the US hit a record high last year. The EU imported €333.3 billion (£277 billion) of goods from the US in 2024, while the US bought €531.6 billion (£440billion) worth of items from Europe, according to data from Eurostat.

The founders of the EU maintain that the bloc was created in 1951 to promote lasting peace in Europe. In 1957, a common market for its members was established creating the free movement of goods and people.

Mr Trump’s remarks come the day before Sir Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, is due to meet Mr Trump in Washington on Thursday with the risk of trade tariffs one of the key issues on the table.

Mr Trump said earlier this month that he believed something could be “worked out” with Britain.

Elon Musk

At the start of the cabinet meeting Mr Trump suggested he would sack cabinet members who disagreed with the actions being taken by Elon Musk.

Mr Trump was asked if his administration was happy with Mr Musk’s performance.

“Is anyone not happy,” the US president asked the room, adding he would “throw them out” if they were.

The cabinet responded with laughter and applause.

Mr Trump said “some disagree a little bit” but “for the most part” everyone is “happy”.

The world’s richest man was asked to address the meeting before any actual cabinet members, signalling the influence he has within the administration.

This week, Mr Musk received some pushback from agency heads after he instructed an email to be sent out demanding federal employees explain what they achieved last week or face termination.

Leaders at the FBI, state department and the department of homeland security instructed their staff to pause their responses, suggesting a potential internal rift. Mr Musk said the email had been “misinterpreted as a performance review,” when it was designed to be what he called a “pulse check review”.

Mr Musk used his brief address to praise the cabinet, saying it was “the best cabinet ever, literally” and “an incredible group of people”.

The Tesla chief executive also admitted that Doge had accidentally cancelled an Ebola prevention program but it had been restored “immediately”.

“We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect, but when we make a mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly,” he said.

Ukraine

Mr Trump said he would largely leave Ukraine’s security in the hands of Europe in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.

“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much, we’re going to have Europe do that,” he said, adding: “Europe is the next-door neighbour, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”

On the topic of the Ukraine rare earths deal, Mr Trump said the agreement would bring the US “great wealth” and would see the country “get back the money we spent”.

He said Volodymyr Zelensky would be coming to sign the “very big agreement” this week and it was a “great deal for Ukraine too”. “We very much need rare earth, they have great rare earth,” Mr Trump said.

He claimed that the presence of the US “working over there” would provide a “sort of automatic security, because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there”.

Mr Trump also described the UK and France’s offer to put peacekeepers on the ground as a “good thing”.

The US president added that Nato membership was off the table and it was “probably the reason the whole thing started”.

Afghanistan

The US president said it would be a “great idea” to fire everyone involved in Joe Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan. “I’m not going to tell this man what to do,” Mr Trump said, signalling to Pete Hegeth, his defence secretary, before adding: “But I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them.”

“I know the man on my left, I think they’re going to be largely gone,” Mr Trump added.

He called the 2021 withdrawal “the worst withdrawal anybody’s ever seen” and suggested it had given Vladimir Putin the confidence to launch his attack on Ukraine.

Canada

The Republican leader also used the meeting to again double down on his plans to make Canada the 51st state, calling Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, “governor Trudeau”.

“We protect Canada, but it’s not fair. It’s not fair that they’re not paying their way, and if they had to pay their way they couldn’t exist,” he said

Mr Trump also said his planned tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which are currently paused, would go into effect on April 2.

Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said the countries needed to show progress on stopping illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

CBS Row

Mr Trump said his administration is discussing a settlement with CBS after it edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris during the presidential race to make her appear more coherent.

Asked what sort of number they had in mind, Mr Trump said “I think it’s a lot” and suggested he “could have lost the election” because of it.

“It probably did affect the election,” he said. “I mean, we won by a lot, as I said, too big to rig, but it probably did affect the election… probably could have won by more, but I could have lost the election,” adding: “We have to get to honest elections.”

China

Mr Trump declined to comment on whether he would allow China to take Taiwan by “force”. “I never comment on that. I don’t comment on anything, because I don’t ever put myself in that position,” he said.

The US president’s refusal to support Taiwan is a gear change from the Biden administration. The former president repeatedly said the US would intervene if China invaded Taiwan.

Mr Trump added that he has a “great relationship” with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, and he wants China to “come and invest” in the US.

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