President Donald Trump announced he had reached a ‘very powerful’ trade deal with the European Union that would lower barriers to U.S. exports and bring new European investments into the U.S.
Trump called it ‘a very powerful deal’ as well as ‘a very big deal. It’s the biggest of all the deals.’ He also called it ‘the biggest deal ever made.’
Speaking from his Turnberry golf course, Trump said European Union countries would purchase $750 billion of energy from the U.S., and provide an additional $600 billion in U.S. investments.
‘All of the countries will be opened up to trade with the United States at zero tariff, and they’re agreeing to purchase a vast amount of military equipment,’ Trump added. ‘We don’t know what that number is.’
It came after Trump inveighed against ‘one-sided’ trade with Europe as he sat down at his Turnberry golf course with the EU Commission president, while raging against windmills and saying there were prospects for reaching a deal imminently.
‘We wanted to rebalance the trade relations,’ said EU Commission Chair Ursula von der Leyen, confirming the agreement while sitting alongside Trump.
Trump flashed his anger when a reporter asked if turmoil over the Jeffrey Epstein story had contributed to the rush to get the deal done.
‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding. No – had nothing to do with it. Only you would make that. That had nothing to do with it,’ Trump responded.
Both leaders made nice – after the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs Trump rolled out in April threatened to cleave the powerful allies. Trump had more recently threatened a 30 percent tariff on the EU – providing an incentive to negotiate it down. Trump upon arriving here in Scotland said the powerful trade bloc must ‘buy down’ the number.
‘Basically the European market is open,’ said von der Leyen. ‘It’s 450 million people, so it’s a good deal. It’s a huge deal. Was tough negotiations. I knew it at the beginning, and it was indeed very tough, but we came to a good conclusion from both sides,’ she said.
‘It’s been a very, very one-sided deal, and it shouldn’t be,’ Trump fumed about US-EU trade at a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
The number comports with what had already been floated. ‘We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else’ would be 15 percent, said Trump.
The agreement – with details still to be revealed – comes after Trump announced other agreements with Japan and other nations, while firing off a series of trade ‘letters’ announcing new tariffs he is imposing on other nations.
Japan, too, would face a 15 percent rate on its auto exports to the U.S.
After many economists warned that Trump’s tariffs could break the alliance, the two leaders proclaimed new cooperation after they had agreed to broad terms.
‘This deal will bring us very close together actually. It’s a partnership in a sense,’ Trump said.
The progress came about an hour after Trump complained about the trade relationship.
‘It’s been a very one-sided transaction – very unfair to the United States,’ he complained alongside von der Leyen, keeping her hands in her lap and her expressions muted.
‘It’s been a very, very one-sided deal, and it shouldn’t be,’ Trump fumed. He said a deal, if it can be reached, would be the biggest deal ‘ever struck by anybody.’
‘This is the biggest deal. People don’t realize – this is bigger than any other deal. And it could happen – should happen,’ he said.
Fielding questions at a press event that put the ‘working’ in what his team calls a ‘working visit,’ Trump went off on a number of topics.
Trump annoucned the deal in a ballroom while aides Karoline Leavitt (r), Steven Miller, Jamieson Greer, and Larry Lutnick, and US ambassador to Britain Warren Stephens watched.
Trump said US tariffs on EU goods would be at 15 percent
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the deal would rebalance the US trade deficit with Europe
Trump celebrated the deal and said it had nothing to do with the Jeffrey Epstein saga
His attacks quickly changed to wind turbines he said obstructs the view from his Scottish golf course.
‘It ruins the landscape it kills the birds. They’re noisy,’ Trump complained.
He said what he terms windmills in Massachusetts were ‘driving them loco – driving them crazy.’
‘Today I’m playing the best course, I think, in the world: Turnberry … And I look over the horizon and I see nine windmills. I say isn’t that a shame,’ he said.
On immigration, another tension point, Trump said: ‘We’ve sealed our borders. We have nobody coming in … I think they’re going to end up in the same place. You might as well go there quicker.’
Von Leyen shared his assessment on the chance of reaching an agreement, putting it at 50 percent.
Trump got asked at one point if he could do better than 15 percent – the amount of a tariff on European imports that has been floated as a potential final number in an agreement.
‘Better meaning lower? No,’ Trump said flatly.
But the former German politician showed some give in her own remarks, and kept her composure even as Trump tore into European policies on trade, energy, and immigration.
‘I think the President is right. You have a 50 percent chance to strike a deal. And indeed, it is about rebalancing. So you can call it fairness, you can call it rebalancing.’
She continued: ‘United States has a deficit, and we have to re balance it. We have an excellent trade relations – tt’s a huge volume on trade that we have together. So we will make it more sustainable.
The two leaders sat in the Donald J. Trump ballroom – one Trump said he wishes he could simply drop down inside the White House, where he has plans for a new ballroom.
‘You know, we just built this ballroom, and we’re building a great ballroom at the White House. The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years, but they never had a real estate person,’ he said.
He called the ballroom, which is named for himself, ‘quite the success.’
‘I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful,’ Trump said.
The trade talk comes a day before Trump is set to sit down with British PM Keir Starmer, amid indications that Trump’s love of pomp and pageantry could be working to his host county’s benefit.
He also complained that the U.S. doesn’t get enough credit to approving food aid for Gaza, amid growing hunger and signs of starvation as Israel paused military action.
‘Nobody acknowledged it. Nobody talks about it,’ Trump complained.
‘The US is going to do more aid for Gaza but we’d like to have other countries participate,’ Trump said.
The meeting came after Trump spent a second day on his Turnberry golf course Sunday – after raging at rivals from Democrats to Beyonce overnight.
The deal comes after the Epstein saga followed Trump to Scotland
Ursula von der Leyen shared Trump’s assessment of the ’50 percent’ chance of a deal
President Donald Trump golfed for a second day at his Turnberry course in Scotland on Sunday. He also held a meeting with EU Commission leader Ursula von der Leyen
This time, he golfed just with his son Eric, despite touting a littany of big shots he said would be staying at his private course.
‘We’ll have numerous executives that we’re meeting with – lot of them. We’re going to be meeting with a lot of people. A lot of people will be staying at Turnberry,’ Trump said after landing Friday night.
His aides are calling it a ‘working visit’ – although he has made time to play his course for two successive days.
There is a typically massive security footprint – including the rollout of a new armoured golf court after a phalanx of agents swept his course in search of potential security threats.
The last minute addition to his schedule has Trump going toe-to-toe with a top European leader days after he said there was a ‘fifty-fifty’ chance of reaching a trade deal.
If Trump wanted to send a message about what kind of contender she was dealing with, he posted a short video of himself swinging a driver at one of the tees on his Turnberry course.
Trump also put in plug by golf legend Gary Player, quoting him as saying ‘Turnberry is, without a question, in the Top Five Greatest Golf Courses I’ve ever played in my 73 years as a pro.’
‘Thank you, Gary!’ Trump added.
Not all of his musings were upbeat – on a trip that Trump began by railing against wind turbines and illegal immigration.
Trump used his site to fire at Democrats about the 2024 election, after spending part of the week accusing President Barack Obama of ‘treason’ after his administration released declassified documents about Russian election interference intelligence assessments.
‘I’m looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election, and the fact that they admit to paying, probably illegally, $11 million to singer Beyoncé for an endorsement (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!), $3 million for “expenses,” to Oprah, $600,000 to very low rated TV “anchor,” Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!), and others to be named for doing, absolutely nothing!’ he wrote, sprinkling in all-caps.
The Kamala Harris campaign has long denied paying for any endorsements. Oprah Winfrey has said she was ‘not paid a time’ to appear with Harris, although the campaign picked up production costs of the event. FEC filings show the Harris camp gave $165,000 to Beyonce’s production company, Parkwood Production Media LLC,
Trump called it ‘totally illegal to pay for an endorsement and added that ‘Kamala, and all those that received endorsement money, broke the law,’ again using all caps.