Trump posted on Truth Social that the European Union is robbing American tech companies. He threatened substantial tariffs. The EU just fined Google again. They've also hit Apple, Meta, and Amazon with penalties in recent years.
Robbing is a strong word for enforcing your own laws in your own jurisdiction. The EU passed regulations. American companies operating in Europe violated those regulations. The EU collected fines. That's called governance, not theft, but why split hairs when you can threaten a trade war instead.
The plan appears to be: EU fines our companies for breaking EU rules, so we'll tariff EU goods to punish European consumers and American importers. Galaxy brain stuff. Really teaching them a lesson by making our own citizens pay more for German cars and French wine.
Retail traders are already pricing in a tech rally because surely punitive tariffs on unrelated European goods will somehow force Brussels to refund Google. They're buying call options on Meta because they think international regulatory disputes get resolved through angry social media posts. One guy on Reddit is convinced this means Apple will moon because "Trump always wins trade wars." He learned everything he knows about geopolitics from a TikTok with 47 views.
The best part is calling it robbery when these companies have market caps larger than most countries' GDPs. Google got fined and their stock moved less than it does on a typical Tuesday when some analyst upgrades them from Strong Buy to Very Strong Buy. Apple has enough cash to buy the entire GDP of Portugal. They're not victims. They're not getting robbed. They just have to follow laws in places that aren't America, which apparently is a shocking concept.
But sure, let's start a tariff war with our largest trading partners because Google had to write a check.
Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash
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