Donald Trump on france: what the evidence says · JRE #2219
SUBJECT: FRANCE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
I said, emmanuel, if you do that, I'm going to put 100% tariff when your wines and champagnes are coming to the United States, and you're going to regret that you ever did it. He said, donald, please, that's not fair. Anyway, within about two minutes, he dropped the whole thing.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Trump has repeatedly threatened France with 100% tariffs on wine and champagne over its digital services tax, both during his first term and again since. No available record shows the dispute was resolved by a single call in which France dropped the whole thing within minutes. After a 3% French digital tax took effect in 2019, the US and France reached a truce in January 2020 in which France agreed to delay tax collection while both sides pursued an OECD-led global tax deal, a negotiation that took roughly two weeks, not two minutes, and did not eliminate the tax. Threatened US tariffs on French goods resurfaced in mid-2020 and were formally suspended by the US Trade Representative only in January 2021, again without France repealing its tax. France's digital services tax has remained in force in the years since, having survived a legal challenge, with French lawmakers debating raising it rather than repealing it.