SCOTLAND- President Donald Trump announced what he called the “biggest deal ever made”—a sweeping trade agreement between the United States and the European Union that resets the economic relationship between the two global giants.
“We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,” Trump said.
Here’s the deal at a glance:
- 15% blanket tariff on most European goods entering the U.S., down from the previously threatened 30%
- $600 billion in EU investments into U.S. infrastructure and industries• $750 billion in EU purchases of American energy and military equipment
- No tariffs on U.S. exports to Europe, creating a one-sided tariff structure favoring American goods
Trump also said, “All of the countries will be opened up to trade with the United States at zero tariffs, and they’re agreeing to purchase a vast amount of military equipment.”
The agreement was finalized at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, where he met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Both leaders praised the pact for bringing “stability and predictability” to a previously tense trade relationship.
Trump’s administration had been threatening steep tariffs on EU imports starting August 1, prompting fears of a trade war. This deal averts that scenario and instead opens the door to massive European investment in U.S. energy, defense, and manufacturing sectors.
Von der Leyen acknowledged the previous imbalance in trade, noting that the EU had a $235 billion surplus with the U.S. in 2024. The new framework aims to rebalance that equation.
Von der Leyen described it as “a huge deal” that would bring “stability” and “predictability” to both sides.
While hailed as a breakthrough, the deal leaves some questions unanswered:- Steel and aluminum will still face a 50% tariff • Pharmaceuticals may be subject to future tariffs up to 200%
- EU member states must now ratify the agreement, and enforcement mechanisms remain vague
This agreement could reshape U.S.-EU economic ties for years to come.
Editor's Note: Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum. He is also the publisher of the Latino News Network.
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.