The EU has surrendered
President von der Leyen is following the UK in caving in to Trump's extortion, undermining the EU's raison d'être and destroying the WTO.
Sitting at a press conference today next to Donald Trump, after hurriedly flying to Scotland to meet him at his private golf course hat in hand, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was barely able to get two sentences in before being interrupted by the US president. The EU president’s soul seemed to leave her body as she sat helplessly and silently through Trump’s lies about EU aid to Gaza and windmills. Astonishingly, when she was finally asked one question about what the US concessions were in this deal, she parroted the false Trump claim that the purpose of the deal is to rectify “an imbalance, a surplus on our side, and a deficit on the US side.” It was hard to watch, and the EU president looked more like a hostage than a partner in deal-making.
An hour later, we got the news: the EU has caved in to Trump’s demands, accepting a 15% tariff on EU imports into the US. They have also, according to the White House, agreed to pay the US $750 billion for liquified natural gas and are being forced to make $600 billion in investments in the US. The White House also claims that the EU has agreed to bend its agriculture and digital laws to American desires. These enormous concessions were, we’re told, made to escape a tariff level twice as high (30%) that Trump had threatened earlier this month. Even as it seemed unlikely Trump would be willing to pull the trigger on his already-thrice-delayed 1 August deadline and cause another market meltdown