Donald Trump made threats of sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners a key part of his presidential campaign.
  • rammer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    61·
    2 days ago

    All bullies rely on people just rolling over and giving up without a fight. Until they can find enough people to fight their fights for themselves. And Trump is a bully. Europe must not give in. Not to Trump and certainly not to Putin.

    • Pechente@feddit.orgEnglish
      37·
      2 days ago

      The issue is that both Trump and Putin heavily support fascist parties in European countries. Just today Musk endorsed Germany‘s far right / nazi party again.

      What will unfortunately probably happen is that European leaders will not give into the US‘s demands initially, prices rise due to trade wars and some goods possibly become inaccessible.

      The lower standards of living fuel dissent and fascists get elected in EU countries who cut deals that might relieve the situation temporarily but will almost certainly enrich the fascists themselves, weaken the EU and weaken democratic values.

      • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
        9·
        2 days ago

        It is so annoying that this is true and could have been easily prevented by focusing on renewable energies and electric vehicles sooner, instead of artificially slowing them down. Europe could be a lot less dependent on energy imports already.

  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.worldEnglish
    35·
    2 days ago

    Luckily the EU isn’t just a single country with a central government that’s easily swayed. Hell, they usually don’t easily agree on anything. But this is something they’ll gladly shoulder together.

      • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        US-Americans can have their own kind of Brexit. I assume this leads to more nuclear weapons though, because as the trade conflict escalates, the EU will likely arm itself too.

  • CptOblivius@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    My opinion as an American is that Trump is doing this to apease Putin. By making American fossil fuels less attractive it might push EU back to Russian sources. Just my guess though. I would still hope the EU stands firm and tells both Trump and Putin to F off.

    • Draghetta@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      2 days ago

      Eh, I mean. You have to buy fossil somewhere, unfortunately.

      We used to buy it in great part from Russia, now we can’t. Which is a good thing. But that severely limits our options.

      Even if Trump were to shut the fuck up, which would be amazing, we would probably be buying a lot of raw energy materials from USA anyway.

      “Forcing” us to buy American energy is a bit like putting food in your dog’s bowl and then sternly commanding him to eat it, showing off your leadership skills.

  • ReCursing@lemmings.worldEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    Is there nowhere else in the world that the EU could get their oil and gas? And no alternatives to oil and gas? It would be kind of ironic if trump doing this and Musk pushing electric cars actually reduced the world’s reliance on fossil fuels!