“This war, particularly on tariffs, is like a boomerang being thrown,” he said. Those using tariffs are “forgetting that [the boomerang] is coming back.”
His remarks come as cracks have started to appear in the bloc’s unity in how to respond to Trump’s erratic tariff threats. Faced with early criticism from France, Germany, Ireland and Italy, the European Commission was forced to broaden its consultations with EU capitals in the lead-up to imposing tariffs on €18 billion of U.S. exports, a move that ratcheted up trade tensions with Washington.
Buy European
It’s all grist for Trump’s mill. The U.S. president sat down with national leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas was snubbed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t visited Trump yet.
That approach doesn’t surprise Prévot. “The vision Donald Trump is pursuing is eminently bilateral,” Prévot said. Trump prefers to see the world through one-on-one meetings, while von der Leyen and Kallas are the “embodiment of multilateral types,” the Belgian minister said.
The rumblings of Trump’s isolationist policies are being felt in Belgium, too. The new Belgian government in early February set the goal of reaching NATO’s target for national military spending of 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2029. But that target already feels outdated, and the government is looking to accelerate spending further.
Belgium’s willingness to invest more in defense will be tested in the next few weeks when it considers the possible procurement of new fighter jets. The new government promised in its coalition agreement to pour more money into warplanes, but stopped short of specifying which ones.