Trump Threatens EU With Trade Standoff in Presser with Swedish PM: ‘Trade Wars Aren’t So Bad’

President Trump stood by the tariffs he recently announced in his joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Sweden today.

Stefan Lofven made a comment before the Q&A portion of the presser about how he believes “increased tariffs will hurt us all in the long run.”

When Trump was asked about the tariffs by Fox News’ John Roberts, he said, “The United States has been taken advantage of by other countries, both friendly and not so friendly, for many many decades. And we have a trade deficit of $800 billion a year. And that’s not going to happen with me.”

He said the U.S. has been mistreated and claimed the European Union has been “particularly tough,” saying, “They make it almost impossible for us to do business with them and yet they send their cars and everything else back into the United States… The European Union has not treated us well.”

The President also commented, “When we’re behind on every single country, trade wars aren’t so bad.”

Watch both clips above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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