US trade adviser Peter Navarro was giving an interview with Sky News’ Mark Stone about Donald Trump’s controversial trade levies when a reporter riled him by calling out the president’s changeable behaviour in recent weeks
An advisor to Donald Trump is seen snapping at a journalist after he called out the president’s flip-flopping on policies.
US trade adviser Peter Navarro is seen giving an interview about Trump’s trade war, which has seen him put a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium imports to the US – alienating the EU, which is the largest trading bloc in the world. Speaking to Sky News, Navarro said there would be “no exemptions” unless Trump changed his mind. The reporter then points out that Trump is changing his mind at an hourly rate.
The adviser said the reason for the levies is that allied countries have “bit the hand that fed them”. He says: “When we were kind enough as a country to make those kind of gestures to our friends, they bit the hand that fed them and that’s not going to happen again.”
Referring to the earlier statement, the reporter points out: “The president seems to be changing his mind by the hour at the moment.” Navarro responds: “You don’t understand what a negotiation looks like. The president is negotiating strategically so, stop with the rhetoric. Okay, just stop that crap.”
The European Union today announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to 25%.
The world’s biggest trading bloc was expecting the U.S. tariffs and prepared in advance, but the measures still place great strain on already tense transatlantic relations. Only last month, Washington warned Europe that it would have to take care of its own security in the future.
The EU measures will cover goods from the United States worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion), and not just steel and aluminium products, but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods. Motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans will be hit, as they were during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. The tariffs – taxes on imports – primarily target Republican-held states, hitting soybeans in House speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana, but also beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska. Produce in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia is also on the list.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that the bloc “will always remain open to negotiation.”
“As the U.S. are applying tariffs worth 28 billion dollars, we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros,” she said. The commission manages trade and commercial conflicts on behalf of the 27 member EU countries. We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs,” von der Leyen said.
Trump said his taxes would help create U.S. factory jobs, but von der Leyen said: “Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.” We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy,” she said.
The American Chamber of Commerce to the EU said the U.S. tariffs and EU countermeasures “will only harm jobs, prosperity and security on both sides of the Atlantic.”
