U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the EU will pay a 'very high price' after the European Commission fined Google €890 million. He announces an investigation under Section 301 and demands the cancellation of all fines.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened the European Union with "substantial tariffs" on Friday, July 24, 2026, after the European Commission imposed a fine of €890 million on Google on Thursday, equivalent to about $1 billion. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. is "not a piggy bank for Europe" and that the EU will pay a "very high price" for what he called illegal and unethical behavior.
In his post, Trump listed a series of fines imposed by the EU on U.S. tech companies. According to him, Apple was fined $15 billion, Meta $3 billion, Amazon $2.5 billion, and total fines on Google now exceed $18 billion.
"The European Union is at it again, and as usual, it's directly targeting BIG American companies! (...) This illegal and highly discriminatory practice started at these high levels during the first year of the Sleepy Joe Biden administration, but it will not continue under the Trump administration,"Trump wrote, according to 24sata.
Trump announced the launch of an investigation under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes the administration to impose tariffs in cases of "unjustified, disproportionate, or discriminatory" trade practices. In the same post, he stated that "all fines must be fully canceled" and that the EU should "expect substantial tariffs at the earliest possible opportunity." U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had already on Thursday, July 23, 2026, used the same section to impose new tariffs on about 60 trading partners over alleged insufficient measures against forced labor, Tagesschau reports.
The European Commission imposed the fine on Google on Thursday, July 23, 2026. According to the Commission's explanation, Google violated EU rules that limit the market power of large tech companies, specifically in the areas of search services and app commerce. This involves the application of the Digital Markets Act, through which the EU seeks to regulate the dominance of large platforms. The European Commission's reaction to Trump's threats had not been published at the time of reporting.
Alongside threats to the EU, Trump also announced tariffs on Canada on July 24, 2026, but for a completely different reason. According to Index, citing Reuters, the U.S. administration plans to impose tariffs on Canada in response to smoke from wildfires spreading onto U.S. territory from the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Trump had already on July 22, 2026, accused Canada on Truth Social of "willful negligence" and poor forest management. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected those accusations and stated that wildfires are a consequence of climate change for which all countries, including the U.S., bear responsibility.
Trump's threats to the EU come in the context of already tense trade relations between Washington and Brussels. The announcement of an investigation under Section 301 means the administration could formally initiate the process that precedes the imposition of tariffs, but specific amounts and deadlines have not yet been announced. Whether the EU will respond with counter-tariffs or through diplomatic channels was not known at the time of publication.
