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Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
As the TACO trade gains popularity, here are multiple occasions when Trump threatened and then backtracked
Trump promised tough tariffs during both his campaigns and in his second term, he's made many threats but followed through on fewer. The constant back-and-forth on tariffs has made businesses uncertain, caused job cuts, delayed investments, and shook the stock market, as per reports. Financial analysts have started calling this behavior TACO trade , meaning 'Trump Always Chickens Out.'When asked about this phrase, Trump got defensive and said, 'It's called negotiation.' This information is from an NBC News report. 10 times Trump threatened tariffs but then backed down 1. European Union Tariffs Trump said on a Friday that he would put 50% tariffs on the E.U. starting June 1 because they weren't serious about trade talks. Two days later, he delayed them until July 9 after speaking with E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that on April 2, he first announced 20% tariffs, but later the same day, he lowered them to 10% for 90 days. As per NBC News, E.U. tariffs are still at 10% today. 2. Wine Tariff On March 13, Trump posted he'd slap a 200% tariff on E.U. wine after the E.U. threatened 50% on American whiskey. This back-and-forth never happened. A week later, the E.U. stated that the whiskey tariff would be delayed to give time for discussions. No special wine tariffs were added, only the usual 10% one, as per reports. Live Events 3. Canada and Mexico Tariffs Early in office, Trump said he'd put 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico due to fentanyl concerns. Canada and Mexico hit back with tariffs, and Canadian citizens boycott U.S. goods. Trump paused the tariffs a day before they were to start, saying both countries were improving border actions. According to the reports, on March 4, he said tariffs were back on, but two days later, paused them again until April 2. When he announced wider global tariffs on April 2, he excluded Canada and Mexico. Today, most goods from both countries have no new tariffs, thanks to the North American trade deal. 4. Tariff on Films On May 4, Trump tweeted he wanted a 100% tariff on all foreign movies. Later that day, the White House said nothing was final, and they were 'exploring options.' By afternoon, Trump said he'd talk to movie industry people to keep them 'happy.' No movie tariffs have been implemented, as per reports. 5. Reciprocal Tariffs As per reports, Trump announced tariffs on almost all countries on 'Liberation Day,' saying they'd range from 10% to 49%. He said this would restart American industry and wealth. But on April 9, the day the tariffs were supposed to begin, he delayed them until July 2 to work on separate trade deals. Meanwhile, he kept a blanket 10% tariff. Only the UK got a draft trade deal. A trade court ruled Trump went too far with these tariffs; the ruling is being appealed. 6. China Tariffs Trump repeatedly accused China of cheating the U.S. and shooting tariffs to over 145% in April. This caused U.S. companies to stop China orders and shipments. Then Trump lowered tariffs to 10% for 90 days to start talks after a meeting between Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent and Chinese officials. A separate 20% tariff on fentanyl ingredients from China stayed. A court ruling this week struck down both tariffs, but they remain during appeals, as stated in the reports. 7. Tariff on iPhones After raising China tariffs, Trump made an exception for iPhones, lowering it to 20%. Last Friday, he said he'd put a 25% tariff on iPhones no matter where they're made, starting at the end of June. Trump wants iPhones to be made in the U.S., but Apple is shifting production to India. As mentioned in the report by NBC News, officials walked it back. Treasury Sec. Bessent said it's more about phone chips than full phones. Kevin Hassett said the move was just a small negotiation tactic and they don't want to 'harm Apple.' 8. Colombia Tariff After Colombia blocked two U.S. military flights carrying migrants on his sixth day back in office, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs. Colombia replied with their own 25% tariff, but soon allowed the sides dropped the threats within a day. 9. Tariff on Dolls On May 8, Trump said he'd put a 100% tariff on Mattel toys, even if they stopped making them in China, unless they moved production to the U.S. He said if prices went up, kids in the U.S. would just have fewer dolls. Later, Trump said the U.S. should focus on making high-tech items like chips, computers, tanks, ships, not toys or T-shirts. 10. Auto Tariffs Announcement of a 25% tariff on all foreign-made cars was made by Trump on April 3. A month later, he eased some of those to avoid hurting the U.S.-assembled cars that use foreign parts. He later said cars from the U.K., like Land Rover and Aston Martin, would get just a 10% tariff under a draft U.S.-U.K. trade deal still being negotiated, as per NBC News report. FAQs: Q1. What is TACO trade? TACO trade stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' which refers to Trump's habit of backing down on tariff threats . Q2. How do Trump's tariff threats affect? They cause uncertainty, delay investments, and impact jobs and the stock market.
Yomiuri Shimbun
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Ursula Von Der Leyen Honored with Award for Contributions to European Unity
The Associated Press European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, receives the Charlemagne Prize by Juergen Linden, left, Chairman of the Charlemagne Prize Board of Directors, in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 29, 2025. BERLIN (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen received the International Charlemagne Prize, an annual award for contributions to European unity, on Thursday as the 27-nation bloc confronts Russia's war against Ukraine, the Trump administration's trade war and security issues across the continent. The European Union's most high-profile political figure, von der Leyen was called 'the embodiment of the European spirit' by King Felipe VI of Spain during Thursday's ceremony in Aachen, Germany. Last year, European Parliament lawmakers reelected her to a second five-year term as president of the EU's powerful executive arm. The commission proposes legislation for the EU's 27 member countries — and its 450 million people — and ensures that the rules governing the world's biggest trading bloc are respected. It's made up of a College of Commissioners with a range of portfolios similar to those of government ministers, including agriculture, economic, competition, security and migration policy. After coming to office in 2019, von der Leyen led the EU drive to secure COVID-19 vaccines and has been a major supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. With governments weakened in France and Germany at the time, she sought to play a greater role in the bloc's affairs. The Trump administration and Europe The Spanish king and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also attended Thursday's ceremony, pushed for stronger European defense as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to pull back America's protection commitments to the continent, upending the post-World War II order that has formed the basis for global stability and security. 'A clear message is coming out of Washington: Europeans ought to do more to provide for the defense of their own continent,' Felipe said. 'We should not underestimate how consequential this message is. There are few alive today that have lived in a Europe where the U.S., the United States, was not the dominant security provider.' Merz, whose election earlier this month was seen as a reemergence of Germany's status as a diplomatic and economic heavyweight, brought up U.S. Vice President JD Vance's comments at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. Vance, 'in his own very special way,' confronted what Europeans stand for, Merz said. Vance at the time complained about the state of democracy and free speech in Europe, and lambasted German political parties — days before a national election — for their so-called 'firewall' against working with far-right parties. 'We actually stand for what we have been able to develop, to design, what we have actually fought for during centuries — and despite many backlashes and disasters — that we actually defend what is dear to us and important: freedom and democracy,' Merz said. Both leaders, as well as von der Leyen, emphasized the importance of responding to Trump's changing tariff policies with a single voice. 'We will never be a protectionist continent,' von der Leyen said. Recalling Anne Frank The International Charlemagne Prize was first awarded in 1950 in Aachen. Charlemagne, considered the first unifier of Europe, had his favorite palace in the western German city in the late eighth century. Aachen, on the Dutch border, is also famous as the birthplace of teenage diarist Anne Frank's mother, Edith Holländer. She and Otto Frank married in Aachen's synagogue, which was destroyed during the Kristallnacht — or the 'Night of Broken Glass' — in 1938 in which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. The Frank family later left Germany upon Adolf Hitler's rise to power and eventually went into hiding in 1942 in a secret annex in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. They were later sent to concentration camps, where all but Otto Frank died. Anne Frank's world-famous diary was published after the end of World War II. In her speech Thursday, von der Leyen spoke about the Frank family, the synagogue and the city's importance to Europe's history — and its future. 'Today in Aachen, there's a new synagogue,' von der Leyen said. 'A symbol of rebirth, of resurrection, but also of remembrance. A painful reminder for Europe to be alert and withstand all those who sow hatred and want to divide our society.'
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
MEP used AI to compose letter to von der Leyen on Gaza
Midlands North-West MEP Ciaran Mullooly has confirmed that he used artificial intelligence to write a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging the EU to deliver more aid to Gaza. It was reported his letter contained a story of a young girl who lives in Rafah, which turned out to be fictional - while at another section lyrics from the band 'Swedish House Mafia' were used without reference. Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Mr Mullooly said his motivation was "looking for measures that did not include the [EU] member states actually agreeing - because that's the problem. "That's the frustration in Brussels... the attitude of Germany and other states where for a long, long, time we couldn't get even a review of the [EU-Israel] Trade Agreement." He said that around three weeks ago, 25 pages of research were put in front of him in the European Parliament and that he asked his colleague to produce a summary of it for a letter to Mrs von der Leyen. He said AI was used to complete the "first part of the letter...I read every line of it, I looked at the references, and I was quite happy with that," he said. Mr Mullooly said the second half of the letter has received most attention and refers to a song by the 'Swedish House Mafia' group. He said it was composed by a member of his team who had read 1,000 emails from people sent to his office on the subject of Gaza. His staff member summarised those "in what has been described today as fiction, but it's actually written based on some of the information given to us by those emails," he said. One of the 1,000 "real life" emails contained a lyric from a 'Swedish House Mafia' song, which states: "Don't you worry, don't you worry child, see heaven's got a plan for you". Mr Mullooly said: "I had no idea what that was about. "I asked a colleague in the office to use AI or any other references to explain to me - and I have to be honest, I am not a fan of 'Swedish House Mafia' - and it had to be explained to me where it came from. "It [the quote] was included in an email which came to me from Gaza and to me, it summed up, when I read it, the vulnerability of the children involved, the way their lives have been turned upside down, from the comfort of their parents, to a situation where we've lost 15,000 children. "Innocent children, and I was trying to bring that point home to Ursula von der Leyen.
New Straits Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
EU hardens tone on Israel
WITH reports of acute suffering in Gaza flooding the airwaves, European Union leaders have toughened their tone on Israel — but the bloc will need to bridge deep divisions to move from rhetoric to a real-world impact on the conflict. The shift has been most noticeable from key power Germany, one of Israel's staunchest allies in the world, its loyalty rooted in the trauma of the Holocaust. After an Israeli strike killed dozens, including many children, in a Gaza school-turned-shelter on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared he "no longer understands" Israel's objectives in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave. The way in which the civilian population has been affected... can no longer be justified by a fight against Hamas , he said. Berlin's stern new tone found an echo on Tuesday in Brussels, where the German head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, denounced as "abhorrent" and "disproportionate" the past days' attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza. An EU diplomat called such language both "strong and unheard of" coming from the commission chief, among the first to rally to Israel's side in the wake of the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that triggered the Gaza war. The explanation? "Merz has moved the dial" in Brussels, said one EU official. "There's been a very notable shift over recent weeks," agreed Julien Barnes-Dacey, head of the Middle East programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations — arguing it reflects a "sea change of European public opinion". Translating talk into action is another matter, however. Germany, the main supplier of weapons to Israel after the United States, this week rebuffed calls to cut arms sales to Israel. On Tuesday however, in a barely veiled threat, its foreign minister warned Israel against crossing a line. "We defend the rule of law everywhere and also international humanitarian law," said Johann Wadephul. "Where we see that it is being violated, we will of course intervene and certainly not supply weapons that would enable further violations." The EU has long struggled to have an impact on the Mideast conflict due to long-standing divisions between countries that back Israel and those seen as more pro-Palestinian. Last week, in a milestone of sorts, the bloc launched a review to determine whether Israel is complying with human rights principles laid out in its association agreement with the EU — a move backed by 17 of 27 member states. EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday she hoped to present options on the next steps to foreign ministers at a June 23 meeting in Brussels. Suspending the EU-Israel accord would require unanimity among member states — seen by diplomats as virtually unthinkable. Berlin was among the EU capitals that opposed even reviewing the deal, as did fellow economic heavyweight Italy. But Barnes-Dacey sees "the possibility of a qualified majority of states imposing some restrictions" under the trade component of the agreement. The EU is Israel's biggest commercial partner, with €42.6 billion traded in goods last year. Trade in services reached €25.6 billion in 2023. For Kristina Kausch, a Middle East expert at the German Marshall Fund think tank, it is too soon to speak of a European policy shift. "Even the review of the association agreement is only a review," she said. "What counts is the action." Momentum to ramp up pressure is growing by the day, however, spearheaded by the most vocal critics of Israel's assault, such as Spain, Belgium and Ireland. "My personal view is that it very much looks like genocide," said Belgium Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot. "I don't know what further horrors need to take place before we dare use the word." Accusations that Israel is committing "genocide" in Gaza have been levelled by rights groups, United Nations officials and a growing number of countries. One tangible next step could be the broader recognition of Palestinian statehood — with France seeking to move forward on the matter ahead of a UN conference in June. "Will that have an immediate impact? Probably not," said Barnes-Dacey. "But I do think it will have an impact if Israel knows that it no longer has the free path that it's had for so long."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Infighting around EU rearmament undermines grand ambitions for European defense
Despite grand plans, the European Union's hoped-for rearmament remains fully dependent on member nations stepping up their own defenses. In March, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an 800-million-euro "Rearm Europe" plan to build out a defense architecture that has depended on the U.S. since the Cold War. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump's subsequent threats to NATO's security guarantees have alarmed the EU into at least the appearance of action. While some member states like Poland, Finland, or, more recently, Germany, are putting real resources into defense, the collective EU government is nowhere near becoming a military power. Its efforts at collective armament are already falling victim to the same infighting that has long dogged the bloc's most ambitious plans, ranging from the Council of Europe's "European Defense Community" to its failure to mediate the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Consequently, national governments — not Brussels — are driving European rearmament, now and for the foreseeable future. "It was the national leaders sitting at the table with (President Volodymyr) Zelensky," Sven Kruck, co-CEO of German drone company Quantum Systems, told the Kyiv Independent, referring to meetings with the heads of Germany, France, Poland and the U.K. in Kyiv at the start of May in advance of a prospective "coalition of the willing" to protect Ukraine. "I think we are on the right path with the European national leaders. We are not ready with the European (Union) leaders because they are weak." The long-term problem facing the EU is a temperamental U.S. 'European states can't rely on the U.S. anymore. That is clear pretty much across the board,' Patrick Gill-Tiney, a Germany-based fellow focusing on major power relations at the London School of Economics, told the Kyiv Independent. While the problem of the U.S. is clear, potential European solutions are more fraught. The Rearm plan is misleading, says John Foreman, a former military analyst for the EU as well as a one-time U.K. defense attaché in both Moscow and Kyiv. Primarily, he says, that is because Rearm is masquerading as a new source of funding when it is not. Rearm includes some loans, but is primarily a new EU authorization to member nations to take on more debt independently. Rearm's 800 million euros is divided into two parts: one at 150 million euros and one estimated at 650 million euros. The 150 million euros is an EU loan offering to EU members as well as a few non-EU neighbors — notably the U.K., Switzerland, and Ukraine — secured by the union's budget. The 650-million-euro figure is a theoretical maximum amount that member nations could spend on defense over the next four years under new exemptions to the Stability and Growth Pact. The pact itself limits EU nations' deficits to 3% of GDP. The Rearm plan authorizes the pact's 'escape clause' to increase deficit spending if that deficit spending is on defense, meaning no penalties for member nations expanding their deficit spending. The Stability and Growth Pact has been in play since the late 90s. But many EU nations regularly run deficits over 3%. Famously, the pact did nothing to prevent the 2010 Euro Crisis, caused by massive public debt taken on by many of the same nations least willing to spend on defense today: Spain, Italy, and Ireland, as well as Greece, whose large defense spending is mostly out of caution about neighboring Turkey. The Stability and Growth Pact's penalties are rarely enforced and have never resulted in a fine on a member nation. "The whole ecosystem is fixed and the market is closed, with heavy government influence, with long-term contracts and very difficult procurement." "These nations and their defense contractors do not require the EU to tell them that it's okay to rearm," Foreman told the Kyiv Independent, quipping, "It's great, so now we can doff our caps to Brussels and say, 'Thank you, dear Ursula, for allowing us to spend our own money.'" The most favorable to the European Union's proposal will be France and Germany, the EU nations with the largest domestic defense industries, who would therefore be the ultimate recipients of money spent on European-made defense. The rules for Rearm as presented allow manufacturers from the U.K., as well as Ukraine, to participate, but using Rearm funds to buy from non-EU defense contractors will likely draw the ire of the European Commission. Europe's traditional defense industries are, however, expensive and heavily regulated. Despite already seeing new orders, there has been a serious lag time in actually increasing production. Yet they remain territorial. "European militaries are difficult to sell anything to," Mikko-Pekka Hanski, a Finnish investor in Ukrainian defense companies. "The whole ecosystem is fixed and the market is closed, with heavy government influence, with long-term contracts and very difficult procurement." Even other European nations fond of arming will be less enthusiastic about sending money to the economies of France and Germany to buy weapons that Gill-Tiney says are more expensive and outdated than their American competitors, largely due to economies of scale. European defense contractors are, moreover, embedded in their respective national governments and territorial about where their respective militaries send their money. Despite their potential profits, even French support for the broader EU plan is in question. "It looks likely that either we will have a relatively far-right or far-left president of France, and that either way their commitment to arming Ukraine, their commitment to NATO, will be weaker than under Macron," said Gill-Tiney. Meanwhile, Ukraine is mentioned by name as an acceptable non-EU participant in Rearm Europe. But Ukrainian export barriers mean that during wartime, Ukrainian producers, while eager to be the defense industrial base for Europe, have been sequestered. They also fear that the urgency to stockpile will leave Europe if a ceasefire halts Russia's active, violent invasion in Ukraine. The history of the European Union is not rich in quick, decisive action, military or otherwise. The EU often deliberately precludes decisiveness. Aside from the formation of a prosperous trading bloc, the EU's greatest historical success is that none of its members have ever gone to war with each other, in contrast to the preceding millennium of European history. Long before Trump, the U.S. harangued Europe to provide for more of its own defense. But member nations' low spending levels are a historical novelty. Prior to 1990, France and Germany spent well over 2% of their GDPs on defense, with the U.K. standing at 4%. Indeed, in the 1960s, even Italy reached 3%, while the U.K. was at 7%. Those figures collapsed along with the Berlin Wall and the fall of the USSR. NATO nations 20 years ago agreed on a benchmark of 2% of GDP for defense spending, despite commentators often treating that figure as a unilateral U.S. demand on European allies. While Russia's invasion has added urgency, nations furthest away from Russia fall far short. Ireland spends less than a quarter of a percent. That failure to meet past defense commitments casts doubts on ongoing grand plans to get NATO members up to 5%, says Gill-Tiney. "The real issue for a lot of European states is that they agreed to spend 2%, or the NATO members agreed to spend 2%. And many of them then just didn't follow through with their own agreement. The fact that European states actually agreed to and didn't do it, I think is particularly problematic, or was problematic." "The investments in Ukraine and in European countries' defense sector show us that the full-scale invasion created a new market." Less militarized EU members have already put up barriers to the latest plan for rearmament. Put off by the militarism, and a comfortable distance from Russia, Spain and Italy managed to get the entire plan renamed in its infancy from 'Rearm' to 'Readiness,' though even official channels are still referring to the plan under both names. "They renamed it because they don't want to spend it all on arms, they said, 'We want to spend it on arms and soft power,'" as Foreman described it. "This is a very classic Eurofudge, from the Spain that only spends 1.1% of its GDP on defense. They are notorious laggards. And as soon as the idea comes up, they say, 'We will go spend this money on ourselves. We're not facing Russia's border.'" Persuading European voters that their money is well-spent on weapons rather than roads and schools is much harder without an immediate threat. And some European governments are quietly hedging for a ceasefire, say experts and industry stakeholders who spoke to the Kyiv Independent. Various EU member nations have individually expanded their defense budgets enormously. Under recently elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Germany has emerged as the largest spender in the EU. Most new German resources are heading for local stalwarts of defense. Rheinmetall, the country's largest weapons maker, has seen its stock rise tenfold on the Deutsche Börse — a growth figure familiar among tech unicorns but unheard of in an established company, especially one making physical products largely dependent on a market of government contracts. The high profile of new technologies like drones and electronic warfare has also given rise to a whole new generation of defense contractors in Europe. "Europe has now understood: It's not solving the problem of Russia and Ukraine," said Kruck. "It's solving the topic of how Europe wants to be and how Europe wants to defend itself." "The investments in Ukraine and in European countries' defense sector show us that the full-scale invasion created a new market," says Hanski. "And parliament members in England or Sweden are now saying, 'How do we get growth in our country?' So many are thinking that security is the growth sector." But the tightest correlation to increasing defense spending remains proximity to Russia, like Hanski's native Finland. Serving in the Finnish military in 1994, in the trough of European disarmament, Hanski recalls that exercises were always directed at a prospective invasion from the east. Even the fastest timelines Europe could manage — for example, a Rheinmetall ammunition plant set to open in Ukraine in the middle of 2026, barring delays — may be too late to help Ukraine in the current phase of the war. Ukrainians are keen to warn that the EU is next on the chopping block. "We are trying to help Europe actually wake up," as Mariia Berlinska, head of volunteer unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) supplier Victory Drones, put it at a recent panel discussion in Kyiv. "But I don't know if they are processing the fact that while this maniac (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is concentrating on us, they have time to ready themselves. Because sooner or later, this demented maniac is going to turn to them." Hi, this is Kollen, the author of this story — thanks for reading my latest dispatch on European defense from Russian aggression, reported from a Ukraine that is hanging its hopes on EU allies. The Kyiv Independent doesn't have a wealthy owner or a paywall. Instead, we rely on readers like you to keep our journalism funded. We're now aiming to grow our community to 20,000 members — if you liked this article, consider today. Read also: Germany to do 'everything' to prevent Nord Stream 2 restart, Merz says We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
