President Donald Trump posted Monday that he would “stand up to countries that attack our incredible American tech companies,” in a shot across the bow of countries seeking to curb the influence of tech conglomerates like Apple (AAPL) , Meta (META) , Alphabet (GOOGL) , and others.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said:
“I put all Countries with Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional Tariffs on that Country’s Exports to the U.S.A., and institute Export restrictions on our Highly Protected Technology and Chips.”
In his post, Trump promises additional tariffs and semiconductor restrictions on countries which target U.S. tech companies with targeted taxes, regulation, or other legislation.
The post comes months after countries, particularly ones in Europe, floated countermeasures against U.S. tariffs. Among them were efforts which could take aim at U.S. services and tech companies. Retaliatory efforts have not materialized, though.
It also comes nearly two years after the European Union adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of legislation which aimed to curb the influence of gatekeepers, namely tech giants.
The DMA built on the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which passed in 2018 and offered new rights for EU citizens online.
One of the big changes under the DMA is the EU Commission’s newfound right to fine tech giants for noncompliance with various rules imposed by the bloc.
The EU is also in the process of piecing together a new piece of legislation which takes aim at artificial intelligence (AI), the EU AI Act.
The post came just minutes after Trump posted to Truth Social that he removed Fed Governor Lisa Cook “for cause”, citing allegations of mortgage fraud.
Both pieces of news made an impact on futures markets, with U.S equities registering modest declines on the news. At the same time, Gold and the Cboe Volatility Index rose on the report.
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