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Get you up to speed: Trump vows immediate 100% tariff if countries levy digital services tax
President Trump has threatened to impose a 100% tariff on countries that implement a digital services tax targeting U.S. companies. This statement followed European discussions regarding such taxes, which Trump stated would trigger immediate import duties on U.S. goods.
President Trump has set a deadline of July 4 for the European Union and the U.S. to finalise a trade deal that would cap tariffs on most EU exports at 15%. The U.S. Trade Representative launched investigations into nine European Union countries regarding their digital taxes in 2020, marking ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Europe over this issue.
President Trump has reiterated threats to impose a 100% tariff on countries that implement a digital services tax, emphasising that any such measures will be met with immediate tariffs on imports to the United States. The U.S. Trade Representative had previously initiated investigations into European nations exploring similar taxation, indicating that this issue remains a significant barrier in ongoing trade negotiations.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how many European countries are close to implementing a digital services tax and what specific measures will be taken in response by the U.S.
Trump threatens 100% tariff on countries introducing digital services tax
President Trump is threatening to impose a 100% tariff on countries that levy a tax on U.S. companies offering digital services.
In a social media post on Friday, Mr. Trump pointed to European countries considering implementing a so-called “digital services tax,” which is aimed at companies that do business in a country but lack a physical presence there and do not pay income tax.
“European Countries have been discussing the imminent implementation of a Digital Services Tax on American Companies,” he said on Truth Social. “Some of these Countries are close to actually doing this. Please let this statement serve to represent that any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America.”
A new U.S. tariff on other nations’ imports would override any trade agreements with a trading partner, Mr. Trump noted, adding that the 100% import duty would be imposed immediately if a country proceeds with a digital services tax.
Roughly half of all European members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have proposed, announced or already implemented a digital services tax, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, which notes that such taxes would mostly affect U.S. companies.
Mr. Trump has set a July 4 deadline for the European Union and the U.S. to finalize a trade deal that caps tariffs on most EU exports at 15%. Digital taxes were not part of the agreement and have remained a sticking point between the U.S. and the European bloc.
The president also threatened retaliation against countries that propose digital taxes during his first term in office. In 2020, the U.S. Trade Representative launched investigations into nine European Union countries that had adopted or were considering digital taxes.
Last year, Mr. Trump also threatened new tariffs on any country that imposed a digital tax, saying in an August 2025 post that digital taxes and regulations are intended to weaken U.S. companies.
“America, and American Technology Companies, are neither the ‘piggy bank’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the World any longer. Show respect to America and our amazing Tech Companies or, consider the consequences!” he wrote at the time.
Edited by
Aimee Picchi
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
In:
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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