Speed Reads

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Trump threatens to escalate his trade war on Europe with car tariffs

President Trump responded on Twitter Saturday to reports that foreign governments are weighing their options in response to his spontaneous declaration of a trade war earlier this week. He claimed the United States is mocked and impoverished by our trade partners, promising to escalate the trade war with additional tariffs if other countries retaliate economically:

Though his trade war announcement came as a surprise this week, the president has long been enthusiastic about tariffs. "For the last six months," he reportedly said of his economic advisers last year, "this same group of geniuses comes in here all the time and I tell them, 'Tariffs. I want tariffs.'"