The art of the EU deal – and the art of reporting about it
Trump says it’s great:
“It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said Sunday alongside von der Leyen [of the EU].
The agreement imposes a flat 15% tariff on most European imports to the U.S., including automobiles—significantly lower than the 30% Trump had previously threatened, but still far tougher than the 10% baseline the EU hoped for. In return, the EU will buy $750 billion in American energy and invest an additional $600 billion into the U.S. economy.
“We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,” Trump said. …
“It is about rebalancing,” von der Leyen said as she sat next to Trump. “You can call it fairness, you can call it rebalancing. We have a surplus and the United States has a deficit, and we have to rebalance it.”
Sounds good to me. But how does CNN Business spin it? With this headline: “Trump’s EU deal averts disaster. But few are cheering.” The NY Times has this more interesting take of very reluctant semi-praise: “For Trump, E.U. Trade Deal was Badly Needed: After a lot of big talk on trade, the Trump administration needed a big win. It appears to have just gotten one.” Here’s another CNN approach: “Trump lands another big win with EU trade deal, but he can’t dodge the Epstein saga.”
He can’t dodge it if CNN has anything to say about it.
The NY Post, as you might expect, has a more enthusiastic attitude as reflected in this headline: “Eu-reka! Trump strikes ‘biggest deal ever made’ with EU as prez announces Europeans will invest trillions in US, pay tariffs.”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Nothing is perfect, but it has to be better than my lifetime of unbalanced trade relations with Europe.
Man wins $ 50 million in the lottery, but will he be able to handle this new found wealth ?
Man and woman happily get married, but how long will it last?
Jane Doe appointed CEO of JP Morgan Chase, but can she handle the job?
Married couple have a beautiful new baby girl, but will it die before her parents die?
Here is the recipe to living until 95 years of age, but will it increase the chances of contracting Alzheimer’s ?
Olympic 10,000 meter champ is now expected to repeat this feat; can he handle these new expectations ?
Jane Doe wins the US Senate Seat for the state of Idaho, but can she be effective in Congress?
Jim Smith wins a brand new Mercedes sedan, but will this increase his odds of running over a pedestrian?
OK, that’s enough.
Figured I would look on the bright side of things, so I thought up the rubbish I posted.
Why this is important. After roughly six months of Trump 2.0, it has become pretty clear what he is doing here. He is not at all shy about using access to U.S. markets like a nuclear weapon that only we possess. We are the world’s biggest consumer by far. An enormous amount of the goods and services produced around the world are headed here. No other individual country can compete with that.
In theory, the EU acting as one, at least could. Had they said “F you right back, we’ll cut you out of our markets”, that would have been a legitimate threat. No president wants to preside over a serious recession. But that is not what happened. The negotiating power of any individual country just went from little to none. We’re going to see a lot of trade deals get cut over the next few weeks, and almost entirely on Trump’s terms.
This is my educated guess as to why Trump thinks our EU trading has been unfair and needs rebalancing. The VAT tax. It’s kind of a stealth tax, that’s a bit insidious in its ramifications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax
Headline:
TRUMP FINDS CURE FOR CVANCER!!
The NYT:
Donald J. Trump claims to have cured cancer. Ha, we don’t like him and believe his claim to be baseless.
Did you know he was a close friend of the pervert, Jeffrey Epstein? It’s rumored that he flew to Epstein’s Island many times. Blah, blah, blah. 🙂
And with the good news about the tariffs, the Stock Market drops again
J.J. nailed it.
Imagine being a Communist for a minute. Your whole being is filled with envy and hatred. There is nothing good in the the world – only misery that must be blamed on someone else.
Vagrants used to be rounded up. Today they are drug addicts who allowed to build tents in blue cities and towns and no one removes them. They are more useful alive where they are than to be treated. Why?
Gavin Newsome’s California has spent $24 billion on them in 5 years through 2024. To what effect? Where did the money go? To Donors, Grifters and NGO’s that support The Communists and receive the money, pocket it and do nothing. There are more homeless than ever.
https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-california-spending-24-billion-it-2019-homelessness-increased-what-happened
That was written in 2024 and now in 2/2025:
Gov. Newsom announces new funds to combat homelessness with accountability measures – $920,000,000 – drop in the bucket.
Don’t you love the “with accountability measures?”
How many people here believe that is the last money spent on this nonsenses? Yeah, didn’t think so.
In theory, the EU acting as one, at least could. Had they said “F you right back, we’ll cut you out of our markets”,
I believe we were already basically cut out of most of their markets.
I think Trump is getting the Left to demand the release of a nothing burger ala Epstein!
Slightly off topic but related wonderful news:
The U.S. DOGE Service is using a new artificial intelligence tool to slash federal regulations, with the goal of eliminating half of Washington’s regulatory mandates by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The tool, called the “DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool,” is supposed to analyze roughly 200,000 federal regulations to determine which can be eliminated because they are no longer required by law, according to a PowerPoint presentation dated July 1 and outlines DOGE’s plans. Roughly 100,000 of those rules would be deemed worthy of trimming, the PowerPoint estimates — mostly through the automated tool with some staff feedback. The PowerPoint also suggests the AI tool will save the United States trillions of dollars by reducing compliance requirements, slashing the federal budget and unlocking unspecified “external investment.
The tool was developed by engineers brought into government as part of Elon Musk’s DOGE project, according to two federal officials directly familiar with DOGE’s work, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations they were not authorized to discuss publicly.
That DOGE AI analysis of regulatory mandates is wonderful news! It’s featured in the WSJ’s “Best of the Web” feature, and the original report was in the Washington Post. Elon Musk has departed DOGE, but he’s sparked an ongoing revolution.
I’ll be curious to see how many of those regulations are identified and categorized. For example, Tier 1, Agency lacked legal authority (e.g., NEPA regulations couldn’t lawfully be implemented by the CEQ, which was a big decision from the DC Circuit recently). Tier 2, Agency acting outside Congressional authority/major questions-type decisions. Tier 3 – Agency was wrong in its spending cost calculations. Tier 4 – Congress wasn’t authorized under Art. I Sec. 8 to legislate these issues at all, or left to the states, or infringes on executive power, or not proper “general welfare” etc… Tier 5 – regs are void for vagueness. (bigly fight in the courts on the last two types…).
Mike Plaiss wrote, “… pretty clear what he is doing here … using access to U.S. markets … We are the world’s biggest consumer by far … No other individual country can compete with that.”
100% accurate and how was it so hard for so many educated pundits to not understand this? No negotiation is certain until it is concluded and there is additional uncertainty until we see how it plays out, but what he was attempting seemed obvious.
Yet I read and heard expert after expert screaming against the attempt, always arguing against a strawman that was never part of the plan.
Tier 6: federal district judge issues injunction to stop Tiers 1-5
Rufus T. Firefly on July 28, 2025 at 8:05 pm:
This conversation between Oren Cass and Michael Shellenberger seems to track similar views:
https://www.public.news/p/oren-cass-trumps-us-eu-deal-is-the
On the EU deal, one of the commenters raises a caution that ” there is no deal with the EU as von der Leyen does not have the authority to sign anything: she has only a mandate to negotiate and report back to the Council, which ultimately decides. https://www.eclaireur.eu/p/no-deal-donald-eb9 We’re in reality TV territory here.”
It appears that one or more opera singers have to finish their arias before the curtain comes down on this trade story.
It is funny that we don’t hear more from the media about the influence of George Washington, John Quincy Adams, and maybe Jackson as precursors to this “America first” program for trade and foreign policy in general. I don’t really know much about how it works, but if the WTO ends up being disemboweled from these deals, I hope we don’t end up throwing out useful rules and regs along with the excessive ones. Some international trade and interconnections/ interleaving/ interdependency among nations will continue beyond a deglobalization pull back.
Xi Jinping is in trouble at home, his imperialist megalomania being one of the biggest knocks on him, so we do not need Trump to give him any kind of international boost! China regards breaking promises as a virtue, so they do not deserve any of our regard – cut them off at the knees!!
Trump definitely didn’t know what he was doing in the first term. Man oh man this time I am surprised every week as he puts opponents on their heels.
He may have the most effective cabinet in history. I knew Burgum could be really good, and he is. I NEVER thought Rubio and Gabbard would be good. Boy was I wrong.
One of the things Trump had to do in business was to hire good people and let them do their jobs. He’s been willing to sit back and let them shine, and it’s made his administration far more effective.
He had a team that was undermining him at langley pompeo state tillerson and mattis pentagon and yet he was still able to take out suleimani baghdadi and raimi but it took three years his domestic team was also full of weasels like cohn at nec
Hmm
https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1950173713359655140
In theory, the EU acting as one, at least could. Had they said “F you right back, we’ll cut you out of our markets”
——————————————
They are in no position to refuse a deal of any sort:
1. They bet on renewables, and are now energy-dependent.
2. They bet on Ukraine, and therefore cannot get that energy from Putin
3. They now must pay for their own defense, and to shore up Ukraine if it’s still important to them.
4. Internal reform of their welfare states is a dead letter, a political impossibility.
The EU project was always driven by one part furious jealousy of post-war American hegemony – and one part lingering appetite for centralized oligarchy (Europe’s burned and bandaged fingers always steal back to that fire…)
Instead of appeasing the Euroleeches to keep NATO together, Trump basically called them on their various follies, left them to their own devices, and now they have been forced to come back as chastened vassals in the American economic-political sphere.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch
Trump’s words are always a big part of his negotiations, they are not principled ideals of universal applicability.
He knows how to use leverage to get the best deal, and he’s now doing so to get the best deals for America.