Ex-French President says EU must be ready fight tariff war with Trump

The former President of France has declared the EU should consider sanctioning Elon Musk's companies and slapping US goods with retaliatory tariffs if Donald Trump is tough on Europe following his return to the Oval Office. 

Francois Hollande, who led France from 2012 to 2017 and was in office during Trump's first stint in the White House, said the president-elect does not value America's historical partnership with Europe and urged the EU to do what is necessary to get his respect.

'To Donald Trump, the EU is not even a partner. It is just an entity that must be responsible for its own security, that must make its own efforts to invest in the US if it so wishes. 

'We do not count in his vision, as unpleasant as it may seem,' he told MailOnline.

'If (Trump hits the EU with tariffs) there should be a reciprocal reaction - we could target Elon Musk through sanctions on his companies... We must show that we can fight back if the US refuses European goods to circulate.'

He went on to deride the SpaceX, Tesla and X CEO's seemingly outsized influence in Trump's transition cabinet, claiming that 'Elon Musk is effectively the Vice President of the US, he may even be the President - although Trump might not know that yet'.

Hollande, who was re-elected as an MP for France's socialist party this summer and could potentially make a second bid for the presidency in 2027, also said Europe must be ready to pick up the slack if Trump withdraws support for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. 

He made the remarks during an event hosted by British university King's College London earlier this month.

In the run-up to the hotly anticipated presidential election, Trump had waxed lyrical about the benefits of trade duties as an economic and foreign policy tool, describing the word 'tariff' as 'the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff - my favourite word'.

The president-elect this week doubled down, pledging to implement major tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, fuelling concerns of a damaging trade war.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, on his first day in office in January.

But European political and industrial chiefs are concerned he may implement lower tariffs across the board on all products entering the US.  

Trump's previous administration slapped tariffs on EU steel and aluminium in 2018, prompting Europeans to retaliate with duties on US-made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans, among other items.

This time round, Trump has floated the idea of imposing a blanket 10% tariff on all goods imported into the US, with the possibility of higher rates on high-value items. 

Goldman Sachs economists estimate that if Trump went ahead with his tariffs, their direct effect plus the trade uncertainty they would generate could cost the eurozone countries at least one percentage point of GDP growth. 

Hollande said the EU could be harmed by Trump's economic policies and argued European leaders must be prepared to fight for their respect from the White House if the soon-to-be 47th US President presses ahead. 

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'The US is focused on China - it is their opponent on an economic level,' Hollande said. 

'As we know duties will go up when Trump gets into office to slow or even stop imports. But the EU is a collateral victim of this.'

The former French president was also critical of Musk, who he said had appeared to gain a great deal of political sway. 

Days after Hollande's address in London, Trump officially tapped the tech billionaire as the head of the newly created 'Department of Government Efficiency' alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

The president-elect pledged the pair would help him 'dismantle' government bureaucracy and 'slash excess regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure Federal Agencies'.

The imminent arrival of Trump to the White House is also at the forefront of Hollande's mind in light of the war in Ukraine. 

When asked to respond to concerns that Trump could dramatically reduce US military aid to Kyiv while rolling back Washington's commitments to NATO, Hollande said Europe must be prepared to back Ukraine all the way. 

Hollande was the President of France when Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and began the prelude to the outbreak of fully-fledged war in 2022, and characterised 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 could not afford to back down even if the US under Trump abandoned its support of Ukraine. 

Hollande told attendees at King's College London: 'It's the first time since the end of the Cold War that there are troops from another continent present in Europe behind the Russian forces,' in reference to more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers supporting Moscow's forces in Kursk. 

'Now, the EU can support Ukraine and organise its own defence - but who is going to make that choice? Because it's now we have to react and so far there has been no reaction beyond words.

'We need to do a lot more - including massively ramping up aid to Ukraine,' he said.

'Putin only considers us for our strength... We are a place of freedom, and what counts is our strength and our resolve,' he concluded - though he cautioned against deploying NATO troops to fight alongside Kyiv's forces.

Hollande's rallying call comes as Britain, France and the US granted Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russia with long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.

Putin reacted with fury to that decision, unleashing a never-before-seen 'Oreshnik' hypersonic missile to demolish industrial plants in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro after Kyiv's forces struck targets in the Russian regions of Kursk and Bryansk with the Western rockets. 

The launch followed days after Putin signed off on an updated version of the Kremlin's nuclear doctrine that broadens the scope for Moscow to turn to its fearsome atomic arsenal in response to attacks on its territory. 

Russia's amended 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 nation supported by a nuclear power.