President-elect Donald Trump took a short break from the ongoing government shutdown crisis in the U.S. on Friday morning to reiterate his threats of initiating a trade conflict with the country’s closest allies.
“I informed the European Union that they need to address their significant deficit with the United States through large-scale purchases of our oil and gas,” Trump stated on Truth Social Friday morning.
“If not, it will be TARIFFS all the way!” he continued.
Who Trump specifically “informed” within the 27-member, multi-institutional European bloc is currently unclear.
This isn’t the first instance of him issuing such threats; he campaigned earlier this year advocating for tariffs of up to 20 percent on all imports into the U.S.
These threats also echo the previous trade war he initiated against the EU during the first part of his previous term in office, criticizing European nations for treating the U.S. as “a piggy bank that everyone is stealing from.”
In the interim, however, Trump may have more critical issues at hand, as several Republican congressional members went against him on Thursday night, voting against a spending bill that he and tech mogul Elon Musk were supporting.
As of Friday morning, the House is in a frantic effort to pass some form of spending legislation to prevent a government shutdown at midnight, avoiding the holiday travel chaos that would inevitably follow.
