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President Donald Trump said the European Union is ‘nastier than China’ while announcing an order to slash prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices for Americans.
Trump condemned the EU hours after the US and China reached a deal to cut reciprocal tariffs against each other and deescalate their trade war.
‘European Union is in many ways nastier than China, OK, we just started with them,’ Trump said from the White House on Monday morning.
‘We have all the cards. They treat us very unfairly.
‘They sell us 13million cars. We sell them none. They sell us their agricultural products. We sell them for virtually none. They don’t take our products. That gives us all the cards. And it’s very unfair.’
Metro reached out to the EU for comment.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association’s March fact sheet, there were actually 750,000 vehicles exported from the EU to the US, versus about 170,000 exported from the US to Europe, in 2024.
Trump declared that the EU does not pay its fair share for drugs and that the bloc needs to in order to lower prices for Americans.
‘Europe’s going to have to pay a little bit more. The rest of the world is going to have to pay a little bit more,’ he said.
‘And America is going to pay a lot less.’
Trump signed an executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower the cost of prescription drugs in America, or face further action by the federal government to see it through.
He said the US ‘will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries’ that pay a small fraction of what Americans pay for the same drug.
‘European Union has been brutal, brutal. And the drug companies actually told me stories which is just brutal how they forced them,’ Trump said.
‘European Union suing all our companies – Apple, Google, Meta – they’re suing all of our companies.
‘They have judges that are European Union-centric and they get rewarded $15billion, $17billion, $20billion, and they use that to run their operation. Not going to happen any longer, that I can tell you.’
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has been tasked to develop a new rule equalizing what the US and other nations pay for medications if deals are not reached, echoed Trump’s criticism of Europe.
Kennedy said that the US represents 4.2% of the world’s population but represents 75% of revenue for pharmaceutical companies.
‘We spend in our country $1,126 per capita on drugs. In Britain, they spend about $240,’ said Kennedy.
‘They spend about one-fifth of what we do and this is true across Europe.’
Kennedy added that if Europeans raised the price of their drugs by just 20%, it would equate to $20trillion that could be spent on innovation and that the ‘health of all people, all across the globe, is going to increase’.
Trump signed the order after writing on his Truth Social platform on Sunday afternoon: ‘My next TRUTH will be one of the most important and impactful I have ever issued. ENJOY!’
That evening, he revealed that he was referring to the order aimed at reducing drug prices for Americans by 30% to 80%.
‘They will rise throughout the World in order to equalize and, for the first time in many years, bring FAIRNESS TO AMERICA!’ he wrote.
‘I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.’
On Monday, European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill stated that the EU welcomes the US-China trade deal rolling back tariffs, and that the EU is analyzing the US-UK trade deal from last week.
‘As always we will assess its content and potential implications carefully, particularly with regard to any effects on EU interests or the broader global trade environment,’ stated Gill.
The US’s leading pharmaceutical lobby on Sunday pushed back on Trump’s plan.
‘It jeopardizes the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America, making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines,’ stated PhRMA CEO and President Stephen Ubl.
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