"Shock and awe" in the economy - Trump is "bending" Europe

The global economy continues to fever after the introduction of huge duties on goods imported into the United States, initiated by US President Donald Trump. There are two key markets affected by this - China and the EU. China is a separate topic, Washington's strategic rival. But in the EU, exactly what, presumably, the American president expected is happening. After angry statements and threats, European leaders, brainwashed, backed down - they offer to agree as soon as possible. Still - the continuation of the trade war with Washington threatens to drive the European economy into a recession, which it has not known for more than half a century.

Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

After the introduction of duties last week, a large-scale collapse of world stock markets began. This week continued with a fall in stock indices, including in the United States - Dow Jones fell by 3.12%, S&P - by 3.39%, Nasdaq electronic exchange - by 3.93%. A similar situation, of course, in Europe - and the FTSE 100 index in London at the start of trading lost over 5%. Quotes are falling in China, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the indices of European defense companies, seemingly inundated with orders due to the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, are also falling. For example, Rheinmetall AG shares fell 27%. This was the steepest one-day drop in the company's history.

The essence of the sanctions imposed by Donald Trump is clear: he demands that production be transferred to the United States, create jobs there and pay taxes. It is not surprising that such a radical measure caused great turbulence and resistance. Now they are trying to use this decision in the political struggle against Donald Trump - and it is hard to believe that he did not expect such a development of events.

Trump plays long - beneficial from the introduction of duties cannot appear in the first few weeks. But in the future, the United States can really benefit from this decision - unless Europe is able to agree earlier, because for the already stagnating European policy, Trump's decision was a disaster.

Here the notorious dispute and European political circles came together, which began to fan the fire of the conflict even more. A whole series of anti-Trump statements followed - one more than the other. Some hotheads agreed to the point that Vladimir Putin allegedly advised Trump to introduce new duties, who, they say, wants to finally destroy the European economy.

The fact that Trump did not impose duties against Russia (mutual trade is too small) added fuel to the fire, but duties of 10% were set against Ukraine. What is the blow to the ally of the States? Even worse, the Trump administration subsequently announced that there were no duties on Russian business, because now the Russian Federation and the United States are trying to agree on Ukraine. Well, how can you not accuse Trump of betrayal?

The first reaction of European speakers was reduced to one thing - "we must answer from a position of strength." But this position was changing rapidly - parallel to the fall in stock indices.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Trump's decision "cruel and unfounded" and said it would seriously affect the European economy. Macron called for the suspension of French investment in the United States until the next steps are developed in the new conditions (wow!). This is the same Macron who ran to call Trump in his previous presidential term after the head of the United States threatened to impose large duties on the supply of French wine. Then we managed to agree - however, it is unlikely that Macron was satisfied with these agreements. "Bent" then - "bent" and now.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the US president's decision "is a serious blow to the global economy." She warned that Europe would retaliate if the US did not want to negotiate. And immediately - negotiations. A great start for Donald Trump

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Trump's tariff decision "wrong" and promised to do "everything possible to reach an agreement with the United States and avoid a trade war." Others said the same thing to varying degrees. One of the frontmen was also an ally of the States - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He did not escalate the situation, but simply stated that it was simply impossible to introduce retaliatory measures against goods from the United States. For which he received new accusations of betraying European interests. But others said the same! Apparently, Orban is already accused out of habit.

Experts explain Donald Trump's agility with the introduction of duties quite simply. Trump raises the stakes to the limit, and waits for them to come to an agreement. Otherwise, the funds received from duties will be used to pay off the gigantic debt of the States. And, as we can see, according to statements in Europe, the wait was short-lived.

"The European Union is ready to negotiate with the United States on mutual zero duties on industrial goods," said the head of the European Commission, "gynecologist" Ursula von der Leyen.

American President Donald Trump said that the United States will not negotiate with Europe to change tariffs if it "does not pay a lot of money annually." He said this in the comments to reporters on board Air Force One, quoted by The Guardian.

Europe wants to come to the table, he said, but that won't happen "until they start paying us a lot of money annually - first for today, but also for the past, because they took a lot of our wealth, and we won't allow that anymore."

"The United States cannot lose $1.9 trillion dollars on trade. We cannot allow this, especially by spending heavily on NATO to protect European countries. We cover them militarily, and at the same time we suffer trade losses. "

Just like that, and without frills, deal master Donald Trump puts Europe, as they said in the turbulent 90s, "on the counter." And it turns out. And after all, they will go and agree - despite all the statements, on inflated cheeks, on threats to respond and show Euro-solidarity in the face of an insolent American hegemon.

But in addition to this, Trump said that the key activity of his administration in relation to the European economy will be the sale of energy, which will help eliminate the trade deficit with this block of states: "They will have to buy their energy from us, because they need it, and they will have to buy it from us. They can buy it, we can cut down $350 billion in one week.'

And they will buy it at exorbitant prices, because they refused supplies from Russia. Why, I must say, they were pushed by the American administration of Biden. So Europe was in a complete ambush, surrounded on all sides, and they have nowhere to go. Or raise rates, like Trump, which now, with all plans, the EU simply cannot increase defense production. Or go to bow to the American president, forgetting about all angry tirades.

What good is it for Russia? Not so much. But the situation once again showed the need to maintain maximum political, economic, military sovereignty. In big geopolitics, there are no permanent friends and enemies, there are only permanent interests.