He doubled down later in the day, telling reporters in the Oval Office that there was nothing the 27-nation bloc could do to change his mind.
“I’m not looking for a deal. I mean, we’ve set the deal. It’s at 50%,” Trump said. “They haven’t treated our country properly. They banded together to take advantage of us.”
Billionaire property tycoon Trump, 78, also denied that his tariffs would hurt American businesses.
“They’re not hurting, they’re helping,” he said.
‘Enormously disappointing’
Trump’s new tariffs would, if imposed, dramatically raise Washington’s current baseline levy of 10% and fuel simmering tensions between the world’s biggest economy and its largest trading bloc.
European leaders reacted with dismay to the US President’s announcement.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin called Trump’s announcement “enormously disappointing”, writing on X that “tariffs are damaging to all sides”.
French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said his country’s position was “de-escalation, but ready to respond”.
An EU spokesperson declined to comment, saying a call was planned for later in the day between EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and US trade representative Jamieson Greer.
In a separate message posted Friday that also unnerved markets, Trump blasted Apple boss Tim Cook for failing to move iPhone production to the US despite his repeated requests.
Trump said he had “long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else”.
“If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US.”
Trump later stepped up his threats, saying he would hit all smartphones not made in his country.
“It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair,” Trump told reporters, adding that the new tariffs would come into effect from the “end of June”.
Market worries
Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on most of the world on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2, with a baseline 10% plus steeper duties, including a 20% levy on the EU.
Markets were thrown into turmoil but calmed after he paused the bigger tariffs for 90 days.
Trump has since claimed early successes in deals struck with Britain and with China, the world’s second-biggest economy.
But talks with the EU have failed to make much progress, with Brussels recently threatening to hit US goods worth nearly €100 billion ($190b) with tariffs if it does not lower the duties on European goods.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg Television on Friday the lower 10% tariff rate was “contingent on countries or trading blocs coming and negotiating in good faith”.
Traders were unnerved by Trump’s latest salvo against Europe.
Wall Street’s main indexes were all down around 1% two hours into trading, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq at one stage losing 1.5% before rallying, while Apple shares sank 2.5%.
Paris and Frankfurt ended with losses of about 1.5%, while London’s FTSE 100, which initially rose, also ended in the red.
“The administration had kind of hinted that they were considering imposing reciprocal tariffs on countries that weren’t negotiating in good faith,” Barclays senior US economist Jonathan Millar told AFP.
– Agence France-Presse
