Trump Accuses Different International locations of Making Silicon Valley the ‘Piggy Financial institution’ of the World

Tariff-obsessed President Donald Trump is threatening to slap much more tariffs and restrictions on chip exports towards international locations that implement a digital providers tax.

In a  post on Reality Social, Trump mentioned on Monday that these taxes are “designed to hurt, or discriminate towards, American Expertise” whereas giving a “full go to China’s largest Tech Firms.”

A digital providers tax is a tax on the revenues that enormous firms, like Google or Meta, earn from offering digital providers. These taxes have already been applied or proposed in some kind throughout a number of European international locations. Trump blasted them, saying American expertise firms are “neither the ‘piggy financial institution’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the World any longer.”

Trump’s feedback come only a week after the U.S. and the European Union issued a joint statement pledging to “handle unjustified digital commerce limitations” and to “not impose customs duties on digital transmissions.” The put up additionally underscores how Trump has been involving himself extra straight within the tech world.

Though Trump didn’t name out any particular international locations, he did pull out his favourite bargaining chip—tariffs and the specter of destabilizing world commerce.

“This should finish, and finish NOW! With this TRUTH, I put all International locations with Digital Taxes, Laws, Guidelines, or Laws, on discover that until these discriminatory actions are eliminated, I, as President of america, will impose substantial extra Tariffs on that Nation’s Exports to the usA., and institute Export restrictions on our Extremely Protected Expertise and Chips,” Trump wrote.

Whereas the EU is working with Trump to barter tariff phrases, the bloc mentioned in a fact sheet that it made clear to the U.S. that modifications to its digital rules “weren’t on the desk.” These guidelines embrace the Digital Markets Act, which cracks down on Massive Tech gatekeepers like Google and Apple, and the Digital Companies Act, which requires platforms to do extra to police dangerous on-line content material.

This isn’t Trump’s first time going after digital providers taxes. Earlier this summer time, Canada scrapped plans for a digital tax simply hours earlier than it was set to take impact, after Trump froze commerce talks with the nation.

Trump’s protection of the American tech trade comes as he has been cozying as much as tech leaders, holding conferences with prime CEOs, together with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner lately gifted Trump a glass sculpture, as the corporate navigates Trump’s tariff insurance policies in China and India, the place it makes its telephones. Simply this week, Trump additionally introduced that the U.S. is buying a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel.