Countries around the world are eagerly awaiting the return of Donald Trump. This week, as Trump returned to office at the White House, the new president also made an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where his foreign policy goals began to emerge. The first thing to do? Declare (economic) war on Europe, I guess.
In Davos, when asked about his position on the European Union, Trump used the opportunity to castigate America’s allies for having the temerity to punish American technology companies for breaking the law.
“They filed suit against Apple and they would have won a case that most people didn’t consider a serious matter,” Trump said. “They earned 15 or 16 billion from Apple. They made billions from Google. I think they are after Facebook for billions and billions. These are American companies, whether you like it or not. They are American companies and they should not be doing this. For me, it’s a form of taxation.”
“We have some very big complaints about the EU,” Trump concluded, while doubling down plan to impose significant customs tariffs on European countries if they refuse to buy products made in the United States.
Unlike America, where the legislative body of government has been largely co-opted by special interests it is supposed to regulate – Europe has a relatively functioning legislature that sometimes proves responsive to public interests. In recent years, the EU has adopted a number of landmark bills aimed at establish sensible regulations on American technology platforms that dominate the Internet. As such, Trump is right: Europe has imposed massive fines on US tech platforms for their violations of established laws. Apple was recently fined $2.7 billion by European regulators, while Meta was recently fined some $840 million for antitrust violations. Apple also owes Ireland something like $14 billion in back taxes. Miscellaneous regulatory probes Sanctions against the tech giants are ongoing and it is plausible that more fines are on the horizon.
Today, as Trump returns to the White House thanks, in part, to money from Silicon Valley, it stands to reason that the big tech platforms currently suffering from European regulatory control would like this to end. As tech CEOs line up to chat with the president, that’s surely what companies like Apple, Meta and Amazon were hoping for.
That said, the MAGA movement and its various allies have attempted to attack and remake Europe for almost a decade. Right-wing libertarian organizations linked to Trump have long sought to cultivate ties with European leadersin an effort to inform their policies and push traditionally left-wing governments further to the right.
During the first Trump administration, MAGA acolyte Steve Bannon traveled to Europe to try to bring his “populist” style politics to the Old World. To do this, Bannon purchased an ancient Italian monastery and transformed it into what he called a “gladiator school” or, more dramatically, an “academy for the Judeo-Christian West.” The idea was that the monastery would serve as a breeding ground for political parties capable of upsetting the established order in Europe and giving rise to a new type of right-wing politics. Bannon, who has long expressed a desire to destroy the EU, said he wanted to fight for the common man, European identity and, of course, the free market.
Despite the theatrics, Bannon’s efforts were largely unsuccessful. Some of the political parties formed under Bannon’s “movement” having dissolved and Bannon’s “gladiator” monastery was not much used, having been attached by ongoing lawsuits and legal issues.
In recent months, Elon Musk has attempted to step into Bannon’s shoes and sought to use his global propaganda platform, X, to launch his own, particularly idiotic, brand of right-wing politics in Europe. However, like Bannon’s efforts, Musk’s propaganda appears to be (for the most part) failing. A recent poll found that in the United Kingdom, where Musk continually attacks the country’s Prime Minister, the tech billionaire was more unpopular than Megan Markle. Another poll found that Musk’s popularity was quite low in Germanywhere he attempts to promote a far-right political party associated with neo-Nazis.