CNN
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President Donald Trump stunned European officials and caught some of his own senior advisers off guard with his snap decision Friday to reignite his market-rattling trade war with the European Union.
Three days later, he got exactly what he wanted.
“I have just been informed that the E.U. has called to quickly establish meeting dates,” Trump posted Tuesday on his Truth Social account, calling it a “positive event.”
The journey from Trump’s threat to slap 50% tariffs on EU imports – to his pause on that threat Sunday – reshapes the process for trade negotiations that had become a growing irritant inside the White House, according to two people familiar with the matter.
There was agreement among Trump administration officials that the EU trade talks needed to be shaken up. What, exactly, that would entail and when it was coming was Trump’s domain.
“We expected it,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN of Trump’s broadside. “In the end, the president makes up his mind and he’s got a lot of stuff on his plate.”
Top Trump administration officials privately warned their EU counterparts in recent weeks that the plodding pace of trade talks between the US and 27-country bloc had become a significant problem.
But there was never an explicit threat or new deadline included in those warnings, according to three European diplomats. The EU had a process – and despite the methodical and time-consuming nature of that process, plodding is simply how trade negotiations worked, one said.
The US side had its own issues in their view: European negotiators were making unreasonable demands and lacked clarity about what the outlines of an acceptable proposal would look like.
Still, some European officials expressed cautious optimism that a term sheet presented to the administration early last week would demonstrate a level of concrete progress that would ease White House frustrations.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had stated clearly in conversations that the lack of any proposals in writing had been an undeniable irritant, and the EU proposals represented an effort to address that issue.
The offer differed substantially from a list of priorities laid out by the US side beforehand, but its content and those differences were expected to serve as the basis for a call scheduled between Greer and Maros Sefcovik, the EU’s trade chief, one of the EU diplomats said.
That call was scheduled for May 23 at 11:30 a.m. ET. US officials were preparing to use the call to reject the outline of tariff reductions drafted by the EU. And then Trump posted his thoughts on social media.
Trump’s own personal view was delivered on his Truth Social account four hours before the call was set to take place.
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” Trump posted. “Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”
There was little immediate public explanation or detail from the White House in the aftermath of Trump’s dramatic escalation.
Markets tumbled upon recognizing the weeks-long reprieve in Trump’s tariff war would be cut short, a reality that seemed to harden when Trump spoke later that in the Oval Office afternoon and offered no indication he was seeking an off-ramp.
But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had been out of Washington throughout the week leading up to Trump’s escalation, offered the first clue at Trump’s endgame in a live television interview a few hours after Trump’s threat.
“I believe the president believes that the EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners,” Bessent said in an interview on Fox News. “I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU.”
The statement offered a clue about what has become a never-ending market debate over whether Trump’s tariff threats represent a negotiating tactic or clear intent to implement in full.
The truth, according to multiple advisors, is that it depends – in part because Trump at times hasn’t made up his own mind.
But Bessent’s comments were a tell, despite the fact he’d given no sign he’d been aware of Trump’s threatened escalation ahead of time.
Bessent, who has become Trump’s chief economic spokesman and top negotiator, had just returned to the US from the G7 finance leader meetings in Canada when Trump sent his post.
Bessent did not provide any indication in his meetings with European counterparts in attendance or the European Commission executive vice president that Trump’s escalation was coming, people familiar with the matter said.
The role Bessent played and approach he brought to the meetings with finance officials who were unsettled by Trump’s tariff strategy was “productive and very well received,” one European official said. The group managed to agree on a final communique despite persistent doubts based tied in part to Trump’s tariffs.
Bessent kept a low public profile during the meetings and did not hold a press conference while in attendance.
“The conversation in Canada was fine,” Bessent said on Fox News. “The problem was the lead up to that.”
Bessent has publicly pointed to that problem before – and it’s one that has deeply frustrated Trump’s economic team in recent weeks.
They have a collective action problem,” Bessent said on Bloomberg Television the same day. “They’re twenty-seven countries, they all have different needs.”
Hassett, who has been involved in the EU negotiations when they take place in Washington, said of all 18 bilateral trade talks now under way as part of Trump’s 90-day “reciprocal” tariff pause, the EU is “actually about the toughest nut to crack.”
“They can’t make up their minds,” Hassett told CNN. “It’s been very difficult to negotiate with them.
But Hassett emphasized that Trump has formed a close relationship with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which played an important role in his decision to delay the 50% levies until July 9.
In their call over the weekend, von der Leyen committed to move “swiftly and decisively” on talks going forward to Trump but made clear the EU would need more time.
Trump said it would be “his privilege” to do so, setting in motion what will now be a six-week sprint for US and EU negotiators to reach an agreement.
Sefcovic held calls with Lutnick and Greer on Monday to lay the groundwork for the path ahead, posting on social media that the EU Commission “remains fully committed to constructive and focused efforts at pace” toward a deal.
Trump, in the same post touting the “positive” direction of the talks, made sure to maintain some of that leverage should it all fall apart.
“I was extremely satisfied with the 50% Tariff allotment on the European Union, especially since they were slow walking (to put it mildly!), our negotiations with them,” Trump posted. “Remember, I am empowered to “SET A DEAL” for Trade into the United States if we are unable to make a deal, or are treated unfairly.”
