He changed his tune again in just two days! Trump agreed to postpone imposing a 50% tariff on the EU

Last Friday, US President Trump publicly lashed out at the EU for unfair trade practices and threatened to impose a 50% tariff on it next month. However, just two days later, Trump changed his tune again.

On Sunday local time, Trump stated that he had agreed to extend the deadline for imposing a 50% tariff on the EU to July 9.

"I received a call today from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, requesting an extension of the June 1 deadline for the 50% tariff related to EU trade," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"I agreed to extend it to July 9, 2025, and I am honored to do so," he added.

Before Trump posted the above message, von der Leyen said she had a "good call" with Trump, but that "reaching a good agreement" would require extending the negotiation period to July 9.

"The EU and the US have the most important and closest trading relationship in the world," she wrote on X. "Europe is ready to move forward with negotiations quickly and decisively."

Last Friday, Trump proposed imposing a direct 50% tariff on the EU, claiming that negotiations between the US and the EU had "made no progress." He also lashed out, saying that the EU's main purpose was to take advantage of the US in trade and that they had been very difficult to deal with.

Trump also stated that the EU's strong trade barriers, VAT, absurd corporate fines, non-monetary trade barriers, currency manipulation, and unfair, unfounded lawsuits against US companies had all contributed to the huge trade deficit between the US and the EU.

Later last Friday, US Treasury Secretary Bessent said on a show that Trump's 50% tariff threat was intended to prompt the EU to speed up its actions. "I believe the President thinks the EU's proposal is not as high-quality as what we've seen from other important trading partners."

Since the US announced "reciprocal tariffs" on April 2, trade negotiations between the US and the EU had been relatively slow, only picking up pace recently. The EU and the US officially began tariff negotiations, with both sides exchanging negotiation documents for the first time. Dissatisfied with the US's "list-based" demands, the EU prepared a new trade proposal last week to advance the negotiations.