For Donald Trump, China is a rival, but also an enticing market. It is a security threat, but it has the economic and strategic weight to make US politicians think twice before launching coercive actions against the country.
With Friday’s Supreme Court verdict Donald Trump is off balance and on the defensive. The moment is opportune to stand up to his bullying tactics. He has not looked this vulnerable since he was reeling from the market reactions to his initial Liberation Day tariffs.
The EU’s collective silence on Big Tech’s increasingly brazen interference in Europe’s sovereign affairs — from Elon Musk’s aggressive promotion of the German far-right on X to Mark Zuckerberg urging Trump to protect Meta from European “censorship” — speaks volumes.
From Donald Trump’s promised crippling import tariffs, to Kamala Harris’s possible backdown on regulating US Big Tech, what can Europe realistically expect from the next administration on the topics that will matter most, like trade and economic policy?
Germany voted against after fighting the tariffs to the bitter end. Although the vote marks a victory for European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, she will be wise to take note of the fractiousness in how the bloc engaged in its first stand against Chinese mercantilist policies.