“We have a deficit with the European Union of $350 billion and it’s gonna disappear fast,” Trump said. “One of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they’re gonna have to buy our energy from us … they can buy it, we can knock off $350 billion in one week. They have to buy and commit to buy a like amount of energy.”
Von der Leyen’s offer came after Trump last week slapped 20 percent tariffs on the EU and a minimum 10 percent levy on other trade partners. In response, financial markets across the world have lost trillions of dollars in value, with European stocks on Monday suffering their biggest one-day falls since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t mean anything having a surplus.’ It means a lot, in my opinion. It’s almost like a profit or loss statement,” Trump said.
The president was speaking in the Oval Office Monday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who traveled to Washington to hold talks with Trump and seek relief from the U.S. tariffs. In comments to the press after the meeting, the American president doubled down on his criticism of the EU but indicated he was up for doing a deal with the bloc, as long as it committed to closing its trade deficit with the U.S. by buying more American energy.
The idea of buying U.S. energy in a bid to stave off tariffs is not a new one. Almost as soon as Trump was reelected, von der Leyen suggested opening negotiations to buy more American liquefied natural gas (LNG). But POLITICO reported that the U.S. had, in response, offered no clarity about how a deal would work.
On Monday, asked whether his global tariffs were a strong-arm negotiation tactic or permanent, Trump said: “There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations, because there are things we need beyond tariffs.”
