Tariff-obsessed President Donald Trump is threatening to slap even more tariffs and restrictions on chip exports against countries that implement a digital services tax.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said on Monday that these taxes are “designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology” while giving a “complete pass to China’s largest Tech Companies.”
A digital services tax is a tax on the revenues that large companies, like Google or Meta, earn from providing digital services. These taxes have already been implemented or proposed in some form across several European countries. Trump blasted them, saying American technology companies are “neither the ‘piggy bank’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the World any longer.”
Trump’s comments come just a week after the U.S. and the European Union issued a joint statement pledging to “address unjustified digital trade barriers” and to “not impose customs duties on electronic transmissions.” The post also underscores how Trump has been involving himself more directly in the tech world.
Although Trump didn’t call out any specific countries, he did pull out his favorite bargaining chip—tariffs and the threat of destabilizing global trade.
“This must end, and end NOW! With this TRUTH, I put all Countries with Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional Tariffs on that Country’s Exports to the U.S.A., and institute Export restrictions on our Highly Protected Technology and Chips,” Trump wrote.
While the EU is working with Trump to negotiate tariff terms, the bloc said in a fact sheet that it made clear to the U.S. that changes to its digital regulations “were not on the table.” Those rules include the Digital Markets Act, which cracks down on Big Tech gatekeepers like Google and Apple, and the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to do more to police harmful online content.
This isn’t Trump’s first time going after digital services taxes. Earlier this summer, Canada scrapped plans for a digital tax just hours before it was set to take effect, after Trump froze trade talks with the country.
Trump’s defense of the American tech industry comes as he has been cozying up to tech leaders, holding meetings with top CEOs, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook recently gifted Trump a glass sculpture, as the company navigates Trump’s tariff policies in China and India, where it makes its phones. Just this week, Trump also announced that the U.S. is buying a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel.