President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence admire several Harley-Davidson bikes on the South Lawn driveway of the White House in Washington, D.C. during the adminstration's first month in office.
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The Trump presidency doesn’t lack for drama. And that, we know, is the understatement of the year.
A day after the Trump administration announced it was giving $12 billion in emergency aid to U.S. farmers hurt by a trade war with China that Trump started, the president met with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, to discuss trade between the U.S. and the European Union. In light of recent Trump talk — he described the EU as a “foe” just a couple of weeks ago — fireworks were expected.
Instead, the two men announced Wednesday that they would continue to negotiate to lower trade barriers, avoiding escalating a trade war on a second, European front.
Earlier this year, the administration had imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum. The EU retaliated. Juncker, rightly, had called it “basically a stupid process,” adding, “We will now impose tariffs on motorcycles, Harley-Davidson, on bluejeans, Levi’s, on bourbon. We can also do stupid.”
Trump then threatened further tariffs, this time on automobiles, prompting cries of anguish from U.S. auto companies and the companies that do business with them. “He’s the president of the United States, and I just sell tires,” said Richard Smallwood, president of the tire company Sumitomo Rubber North America. “I have to be careful about second-guessing him, but I wish it were a more logical approach.”
Ah, logic! It’s a beautiful thing.
Emotions, however, also play a role in America’s relationship with Europe, as Juncker, from Luxembourg, recognizes. The European Commission president gave Trump a picture of the cemetery in Luxembourg where U.S. Gen. George Patton, who led American troops in combat during World War II, is buried. On the picture, Juncker said, he wrote, “Dear Donald, let’s remember our common history.”
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