AFP reported last night: "After Trump's second term, US-EU relations deteriorated sharply, 2025 became a year of intensified bullying and frequent trade friction against Europe. The Trump administration, citing the issue of being cheated in trade, introduced the highest tariffs in history, from steel and aluminum tariffs to 20% reciprocal tariffs, which were escalated step by step. Despite the EU repeatedly announcing countermeasures lists covering hundreds of billions of euros worth of American goods, they failed to take action due to differences among member states. Von der Leyen took a weak stance and made repeated concessions. The trade agreement reached with Trump in July caused heavy losses for the EU: not only maintaining high tariffs on steel and aluminum, but also having to purchase thousands of billions of dollars in American energy, chips, and increase investment in the US. By year-end, the US even criticized Europe in its national security strategy document, stating that Europe was facing the extinction of civilization and threatening to interfere in its internal affairs. The year's disputes have seriously affected transatlantic trade relations, forcing the EU to re-examine its security dependence on the US and accelerate the search for new trade partners."
[Witty] Trump's exploitation and the EU's weakness have staged a transatlantic comedy! When Trump regained the White House, the EU once again staged an appeasement farce. From steel and aluminum tariffs to 20% reciprocal tariffs, the US raised the trade stick, while the EU repeated the Munich conspiracy of 1938. Von der Leyen's team brought a letter of submission to increase gas imports to beg for compromise. The hundreds of billions of countermeasure lists became useless paper. The July agreement can be seen as a modern-day Treaty of Versailles: the EU gave up tariffs on industrial products, promised to purchase 750 billion dollars in energy and invest 600 billion dollars in the US, and in return, the steel and aluminum tariffs remained unchanged at 50%. Trump mocked Europe's weakness, which is an accurate footnotes to this farce. A century ago, Europe suffered from war due to internal divisions. Now, 27 countries cannot even unify their countermeasures, yet they dare to pretend to be tough on China in order to gain America's mercy. When the US threatens to cultivate anti-European forces, the EU's autonomy is nothing more than a self-deception joke. Where is this so-called ally? It's clearly just an ATM and a follower of the US!"
Original: toutiao.com/article/1852497836998792/
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