Trump fights trade war on multiple fronts as Canada and EU retaliate
Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on the EU during a meeting with Irish premier Micheal Martin in the Oval Office.
The US president said he did not want “to do anything to hurt Ireland” but added that the trade relationship between the countries should be focused on “fairness”.
It comes after the president imposed 25% tariffs on global steel and aluminium imports to the US – prompting Canada to announce retaliatory tariffs on US goods worth $29.8bn (£16bn) from tomorrow and the EU to impose counter tariffs on €26bn (£22bn) of US goods from 1 April.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer said he was “disappointed” to see the president impose global tariffs on steel and aluminium and promised to “keep all options on the table” in how the UK would respond.
During Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Martin, the president raised the “massive” trade imbalance between the two countries and said Ireland was “of course” taking advantage of the US.
He said the EU was “set up in order to take advantage of the United States”.
Asked by Sky News’ Ireland correspondent Stephen Murphy if Ireland was also taking advantage, Mr Trump replied: “Of course they are.”
He added: “I have great respect for Ireland, for what they did and they should have done just what they did. But the United States shouldn’t have let that happen. We had stupid leaders, we had leaders who didn’t have a clue.
“All of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies, this beautiful island of five million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasp.”
Politics latest: Starmer promises to ‘keep options on the table’
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‘They have millions of cars coming in and they don’t accept our cars’
Mr Trump said he loves Ireland, where he has a golf course – but said he wishes the US had “not been so stupid for so many years, not just with Ireland, with everybody”.
Many US pharmaceutical companies have set up their manufacturing facilities in Ireland due to its low 12.5% corporate tax rate.
Irish firms then pay a royalty fee to US parent companies so they can use formulas to make products – meaning Ireland could be the hardest hit EU member by Mr Trump’s 25% tariffs.
‘I would have imposed 200% tariffs’
Mr Trump said if he had been president when those companies started to move to Ireland, he would have imposed a 200% tariff on them so they could not sell anything into the US and they would have “stayed here”.
The president said he would like to see American pharmaceutical companies returning to the US, but expected Mr Martin to “fight on that issue”.
He also told Sky News he would “absolutely” place tariffs on cars from the EU.
Read more:
What are Trump’s tariffs and how will they affect the UK?
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Should UK be worried by Trump tariffs?
Mr Trump accused previous presidents of having “lost big segments” of the US economy and said the EU “treats us very badly”, referencing a recent ruling against Apple.
“They have not been fair. They sue our companies and win massive amounts of money. They sued Apple, won 17 billion US dollars and they use that for other reasons, I guess, to run the European Union,” he said.
“So I’m not knocking it. They’re doing what they should be doing, perhaps for the European Union, but it does create ill will – and as you know, we’re going to be doing reciprocal tariffs so whatever they charge us with, we’re charging them. Nobody can complain about that.”
‘Great honour’ to meet Irish Taoiseach
Despite his criticism of Ireland, Mr Trump said it was a “great honour” to have the taoiseach at the White House.
He said the US has “tremendous” business relationships in Ireland “and that will only get stronger”.
Reporters asked questions in the same style as the Zelenskyy meeting. Pic: Reuters
The US leader said his personal relationship with Mr Martin was “very, very strong and very, very good” as he thanked him for coming to Washington DC to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.
He added that Mr Martin did not “look nervous” about the subject of tariffs during their meeting.
Taoiseach reminds Trump of Irish investment in US
The taoiseach praised Mr Trump’s work on “peace initiatives” and said the two countries have a “very good relationship, a historic one”.
But, hinting at the tariffs imposed by Mr Trump, Mr Martin said: “It’s a two-way street. We are investing a lot more in America.”
He said he understands where Mr Trump is coming from, but added that Irish companies Ryanair and aircraft leasing firm Aercap “buy more Boeing” planes than anybody else outside the US.
American Senator Ted Cruz has broken ranks with fellow US conservatives and
hit out at talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, saying it was “mafioso” behaviour.
Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised after it pulled the long-standing host of Jimmy Kimmel Live following comments in his show about the alleged gunman charged with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Kimmel implied the suspect was a Maga Republican, despite the man’s mother telling police he had “started to lean more to the left”.
As a result, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened Disney and local broadcasters with investigations and regulatory action if they aired Kimmel’s show – which led to dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC pulling it.
US President Donald Trump, who appointed Carr, lauded the decision.
But Mr Cruz criticised the threats as “dangerous as hell”.
“I got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,” he said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. “That’s right out of
a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here.
“It would be a shame if something happened to it’.”
Senator Ted Cruz. Pic: AP
Explainer: What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk?
The senator, a former constitutional lawyer, then adopted a broad mafioso accent to quote Mr Carr’s comments about broadcasters this week: “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.”
Mr Trump fired back, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he disagreed with Mr Cruz – one of the most
powerful Republicans in Congress – and calling Mr Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage.”
Demonstrations against his suspension have sprung up. Pic: AP
The Texas senator’s remarks are a rare example of a prominent member of the president’s own party publicly
criticising the actions of the administration, highlighting deepening concerns over free-speech rights and Mr Trump’s threatened crackdowns.
Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and others who speak negatively of the president.
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US talk show titans speak out
Kimmel’s fellow late-night hosts have rallied around him, as did former US president Barack Obama, who wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
Conservative activists had been angered by Kimmel’s comments on his show that they were using the assassination to score “political points”.
Right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was shot dead on 10 September as he took part in a public debate at a college campus in Utah .
Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder, weapon, and obstruction of justice offences.
US talk show host Stephen Colbert has condemned the cancellation of fellow late-night star Jimmy Kimmel as a “blatant assault on freedom of speech”, as America’s top late night presenters came out fighting.
He used the opening of Thursday night’s edition of his Late Show to address the pulling of Jimmy Kimmel Live over comments made about the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel used his show earlier this week to accuse the Trump administration and its allies of “working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, with the president among those to pin it on left-wing extremism.
The move by Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised, with the network accused of kowtowing to President Donald Trump, who celebrated the decision.
Also airing on Thursday night, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, appeared in a garish gold set, in parody of Mr Trump’s redesign of the White House, to tell viewers the episode would be “another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show”.
Stewart, playing the role of an over-the-top, politically obsequious TV host under authoritarian rule, lavished praise on the president and satirised his criticism of US cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight crime.
“Coming to you tonight from the real […] crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no-one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” he said.
He then introduced his guest – Maria Ressa, a journalist and author of the book How To Stand Up To A Dictator.
Jon Stewart. Pic: Associated Press
Over at The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon told his audience he was “not sure what was going on” but that Kimmel is “a decent funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back”.
Fallon then promised viewers that in spite of people being “worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we will be censored”, he was going to cover the president’s recent trip to the UK “just like I normally would”.
He was then replaced by a voiceover describing Mr Trump as “incredibly handsome” and “making America great again”.
Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s Tonight Show. Pic: The Tonight Show X
Seth Meyers also joined the fray.
“Donald Trump is on his way back from a trip to the UK,” he said at the top of his show Late Night, “while back here at home, his administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech… and completely unrelated, I just wanted to say that I have always admired and respected Mr Trump.
“I have always believed he was a visionary, an innovator, a great president, and an even better golfer.”
Kimmel’s removal from the show he has hosted for two decades led to criticism that free speech was under attack.
But speaking on his visit to Britain, Donald Trump claimed he was suspended “because he had bad ratings”.
It came after fellow late-night host Colbert saw his programme cancelled earlier this year, which fans claimed was also down to his criticism of Mr Trump, who has since railed against Kimmel, Meyers, and Fallon.
He has posted on Truth Social that they should all be cancelled.
Jimmy Kimmel hosting last year’s Oscars. Pic: AP
Figures from both the worlds of entertainment and politics lined up to lament ABC’s removal of Kimmel.
Chat show doyenne David Letterman said people should not be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what he called “an authoritarian” president.
During an appearance at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York on Thursday night, he added: “It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.
“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media.”
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
Former US president Barack Obama wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
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