Trump blasts EU for targeting Apple and other US tech giants

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The EU is not exactly on the best of terms with several US tech giants, including Apple, and now the newly inaugurated President Trump is speaking up about it.

EU rulings against Apple and more called ‘form of taxation’ by US President

US President Donald Trump just appeared virtually at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he made a variety of comments criticizing the EU.

Julia Shapero writes for The Hill:

President Trump criticized the European Union (EU) on Wednesday for levying hefty fines against the world’s biggest tech firms, calling it a “form of taxation” against American companies.

“They won $15 or $16 billion from Apple. They won billions from Google. I think they’re after Facebook for billions and billions.”

“These are American companies,” he continued. “Whether you like them or not, they’re American companies, and they shouldn’t be doing that. That’s, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a form of taxation. So, we have some very big complaints with the EU.”

The Apple payment referenced involved a long-running legal battle over Irish taxes, which was recently concluded. The EU ruled that Apple’s tax deal with Ireland was illegal, and ordered the company to pay significant back taxes.

In addition to defending US tech firms, Trump also spoke more broadly about the EU’s economic policies in general.

Trump said, “The EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly…We have hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the EU. And nobody’s happy with it, and we’re going to do something about it.”

9to5Mac’s Take

These comments, made just days into the presidency, indicate that Apple’s EU relations are about to get more complicated.

It will be interesting to see how Trump’s second term might impact the fortunes of Apple and other US tech firms who have faced EU scrutiny. Not just in financial matters, but with hot topics like App Store policies too.