President Donald Trump warned France it’ll face severe economic consequences if it enforces a new tax law that would impact “great” U.S. tech companies like Facebook and Amazon.
“France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home country, the USA,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on [French President Emmanuel] Macron’s foolishness shortly.”
Then, to really twist the knife, Trump added, “I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!”
The president’s threat comes a day after Macron signed a new bill that would require tech companies that annually make 750 million euros — or about $835 million — and 25 million euros in France to pay a 3% tax on its digital sales. The law would impact a few dozen companies, with the lion’s share coming from the U.S.
President Trump did not expand on what reciprocal actions in particular his administration would look to take. Shortly after the president’s tweet, The White House issued a statement it was “extremely disappointed” with France’s new tax, according to Bloomberg.
The president has used his Twitter account to skewer several tech companies since taking office. Trump has routinely chided the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, dubbing the paper the “Amazon Washington Post” while ripping its coverage.
The Trump White House also recently launched a tool allowing citizens to report “political bias” and censorship from social media companies — a claim Twitter and Facebook have vehemently pushed back against.
It’s been a particularly tech-heavy Friday for President Trump. Earlier in the morning, he tweeted Apple would not receive any tariff breaks on Mac Pro parts made in China. The president then tweeted there “may or may not be national security concerns” regarding Google’s relationship with China; the comment came two days after the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that he and the president had talked to Google and found its “very, very limited” ties to China were not an issue.