France’s former president has said the EU should consider imposing sanctions on Elon Musk’s companies and slapping retaliatory tariffs on US goods if Donald Trump cracks down on Europe after his return to the Oval Office.
Francois Hollande, who led France from 2012 to 2017 and was in power during Trump’s first stint in the White House, said the president-elect does not appreciate America’s historic partnership with Europe and urged the EU to do what necessary to gain his respect.
‘For Donald Trump, the EU is not even a partner. It is simply an entity that must be responsible for its own security, that must make its own efforts to invest in the US if it so chooses.
“We don’t count in his view, no matter how unpleasant it seems,” he told MailOnline.
‘If (Trump hits the EU with tariffs) there should be a reciprocal response – we could attack Elon Musk through sanctions on his companies… We have to show that we can fight back if the US refuses to import European goods circulate.’
He then mocked the apparent outsized influence of the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and maybe you don’t know that yet’.
Hollande, who was re-elected as an MP for the French Socialist Party this summer and could make a second bid for the presidency in 2027, also said Europe should be prepared to pick up the slack if Trump cuts support for Ukraine in the ongoing war ensues. against Russia.
He made the comments earlier this month at an event organized by British university King’s College London.
France’s former president has said the EU should consider imposing sanctions on Elon Musk’s companies and hitting US goods with retaliatory tariffs if Donald Trump cracks down on Europe after returning to the Oval Office.
Left-wing French MP and former President Francois Hollande gestures as he attends a questions-to-government session at the National Assembly in Paris on November 26, 2024
Hollande was president of France when Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, setting the stage for the outbreak of full-fledged war in 2022
In the run-up to the highly anticipated presidential election, Trump had waxed lyrical about the benefits of trade tariffs as an economic and foreign policy tool, describing the word “tariff” as “the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff – my favorite.” word’.
The president-elect doubled down this week, pledging to implement the major tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, fueling fears of a damaging trade war.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada on his first day in office in January, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China.
But European political and industry leaders are concerned he will impose across-the-board lower tariffs on all products entering the US.
TrumpThe previous US administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018 at the insistence of the EU Europeans will retaliate with duties on items including US-made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans.
This time, Trump has floated the idea of imposing a blanket 10% tariff on all goods imported into the US, with the possibility of higher tariffs on high-value items.
Economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that if Trump were to go ahead with his tariffs, their direct effect, plus the trade uncertainty they would generate, could cost eurozone countries at least one percentage point of GDP growth.
Hollande said the EU could be damaged by Trump’s economic policies and argued that European leaders must be prepared to fight for their respect from the White House if the incoming 47th US president follows through.
“The US is focused on China; it is their opponent on the economic level,” Hollande said.
“As we know, if Trump comes to power, import duties will increase to slow down or even stop imports. But the EU is an additional victim of this.’
The former French president was also critical of Musk, who he said seemed to have acquired a lot of political power.
Days after Hollande’s speech in London, Trump officially appointed the tech billionaire head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
The president-elect pledged that the pair would help him “dismantle” the government bureaucracy and “cut excessive regulations, reduce wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.”
Trump’s impending arrival at the White House is also top of mind for Hollande in light of the war in Ukraine.
When asked to respond to concerns that Trump could dramatically reduce US military aid to Kiev while rolling back Washington’s commitments to NATO, Hollande said Europe must be prepared to fully support Ukraine.
The former French president was also critical of Musk, who he said seemed to have acquired a lot of political power
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the House GOP conference, November 13, 2024, in Washington
Hollande’s call to stand up to Putin came as Britain, France and the US allowed Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia. Putin reacted furiously to that decision and launched an unprecedented ‘Oreshnik’ hypersonic missile.
Hollande was president of France when Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, setting the stage for the outbreak of full-fledged war in 2022, and characterized the Russian leader as “not a very warm person.”
Now he believes the West is locked “in a world war between democracy and authoritarian powers” and that Britain and its European partners cannot afford to withdraw even if the US under Trump were to abandon its support for Ukraine.
Hollande told those at King’s College London: “It is the first time since the end of the Cold War that troops from another continent in Europe are behind the Russian forces,” referring to the more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers who supported Moscow’s armed forces in Kursk. .
‘Now the EU can support Ukraine and organize its own defense, but who will make that choice? Because it is now that we must respond, and so far there has been no response beyond words.
“We need to do much more, including massively increasing aid to Ukraine,” he said.
“Putin considers us only for our strength… We are a place of freedom, and what counts is our strength and our determination,” he concluded, although he warned against deploying NATO troops to fight alongside Kiev’s forces to fight.
Hollande’s call comes as Britain, France and the US have given Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russia with long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.
Putin reacted furiously to that decision, launching an unprecedented ‘Oreshnik’ hypersonic missile to destroy industrial factories in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro after Kiev’s forces struck targets in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions with Western missiles.
The launch came days after Putin signed an updated version of the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine, which expands the options for Moscow to turn to its fearsome nuclear arsenal in response to attacks on its territory.
The revised Russian nuclear doctrine, first announced in September, allows Putin’s strategic forces to deploy their devastating weapons if Russia or Belarus is threatened by a non-nuclear country backed by a nuclear force.