Wikimedia Commons Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore. Donald Trump speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on 2011
President Donald Trump’s thousands of lies go beyond the 2020 US elections, which he says were marred with fraud but that he won, and the many Joe Biden-era false claims, including that the former president is responsible for Russia invading Ukraine.
He has now spewed tens if not hundreds of falsities, misleading claims, and simply lies about global trade and tariffs, including that Europe does not.
Euro Weekly’s top five list of Trump lies
False: Trump said Europe does not buy cars or anything else from Europe.
True: Official US federal statistics show the EU imported about $649 billion in products and services from the United States in 2024. The same figures prove the EU imported 164,877 US-made cars valued at $8.49 billion last year.
False: The US president has claimed the EU charges the US 38 per cent tariffs. In the EU’s case, he would impose “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs” or 20 per cent. Sounds great, right?
True: According to a World Trade Organisation report, the EU’s trade duties against the US are a mere 2.7 per cent.
False: On 7 April, Trump said the US is “making a fortune from (newly imposed) tariffs—$2 billion a day.”
True: A US Department of Treasury’s daily federal income report says otherwise. The US has so far made only $215 million in revenue from Trump’s tariffs on imports.
False: Trump repeatedly claimed that during his first term, the US “took in hundreds of billions of dollars China paid in tariffs.”
True: A US official International Trade Commission report and others found that US citizens bore the overwhelming majority of the cost of Trump’s first-term duties on China.
False: Trump frequently claims that Canada has taken advantage of the United States through 250 to 300 per cent tariffs on American dairy products.
True: Bruce Mürhead, dairy policy expert and history professor at the University of Waterloo, told CTV News that Canada “does have 200 or even 285 per cent against American dairy imports—but only after they fill their tariff rate quota. And they have never filled their tariff rate quota. Ever.”
How well Trump and his officials analysed international trade and tariffs remains to be seen. Based on the previous list, it would appear the US president is outright lying or tremendously uninformed. In either case, it also seems they have no clue what the actual repercussions of the trade war will be.
