Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed that he prevented a “war” with France during his time in office, referring not to military conflict but to a trade war.
“You have no idea what I did in the White House. I stopped wars,” Trump told supporters at a Wednesday event in Duluth, Georgia. “With France. France, you know the France story? They were going to charge us, think of this, 25 percent, to all American, I have to protect American companies whether I like them or not, some I might not even like,” Trump said.
Although Trump did not say what France wanted to tax, he was presumably referring to a tariff and tax trade spat between Paris and Washington during his term in office.
In 2019, France tried to implement tax on large American tech firms like Google and Facebook for the business they did in France. At the time, Trump called the policy “foolish” and in response, the U.S. imposed a 100 percent tariff on French cheese and handbags.
Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, on October 23, 2024. Trump claimed that he had prevented a “war” with France during his time in office, referring not to military conflict but to a trade war.
Alex Brandon/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Wednesday’s speech, Trump then segued into talking about Google, indicating that he was previously referencing France’s tech tax. Trump has long accused Google of treating him unfairly by allegedly promoting negative stories about him in its search results.
“I didn’t even like. You know, Google is treating us much better. Do you notice that? What happened to Google? They’re treating us much better. Very nice,” Trump said.
“I appreciate that very much. They say McDonald’s was one of the most viewed things that they’ve ever had,” he said, presumably referencing Trump’s recent campaign photo-op where he worked the fryer at a closed Pennsylvania McDonald’s for 15 minutes, generating viral images.
The trade tensions Trump was presumably referring to in his speech involved a long-standing dispute between the U.S. and Europe, primarily over rival aerospace giants Boeing and Airbus.
This trade battle, simmering since the 1990s, heated up under Trump’s presidency. The U.S. accused Airbus of receiving unfair subsidies from European governments, leading to a World Trade Organization ruling that allowed the U.S. to impose tariffs on European goods in retaliation.
In 2019, the Trump administration introduced 25 percent tariffs on steel and several other European goods, including French products such as wine and cheese. At the time, he called American wine “better than French wines” even though he does not drink.
Then-French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called it an unfair trade war.
“The war has already started,” he said in response to U.S. actions.
Despite Trump’s claim that he “stopped wars,” France’s tax on American tech firms is still in place. Joe Biden has since called a truce on many of the Trump-era tariffs on European goods.
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
