New threatening gestures from the US President. This time Trump is concerned with a possible European digital tax.
June 26, 2026, 8:39 p.mJune 26, 2026, 8:39 p.m
US President Donald Trump is threatening European countries with new tariffs of 100 percent if they decide on digital taxes. The tariffs would replace agreed customs agreements, Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform. This applies regardless of whether the agreements have already been implemented or signed.
The new tariffs would be levied on all goods exported to the USA, Trump wrote. He justified his approach by saying that some countries were about to pass digital taxes that would affect American companies.
Austria as a role model
In Germany, for example, there have been repeated plans in the past for a digital levy from large internet companies. The non-party Minister of State for Media Wolfram Weimer has long been campaigning for a levy so that Google and other companies give up a share of their revenues in order to support the German media system. He relied on a dedicated platform levy for media.
However, there were different positions on this within the black-red coalition. Some time ago, Social Democrats backed a classic digital tax.
The digital levy would affect large internet companies such as Google and Meta. Austria is a role model. Since 2020, large online platforms have been obliged to pay five percent of their income from advertising marketing.
Trump had already made a similar tariff threat against Great Britain because of the taxation of US corporations, but had not carried it out to date.
You might also be interested in: