President Donald Trump has warned the UK it should ‘be careful’ after threatening to impose tariffs on British exports should Keir Starmer’s government refuse to abolish its digital services tax on US tech giants
US President Donald Trump has issued a direct warning to the UK. Trump has warned of imposing tariffs on the UK if it does not scrap its digital services tax on American social media behemoths.
The digital services tax, launched in 2020, imposes a 2% charge on the revenues of several major US tech companies. Speaking to journalists from the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr Trump stated: “We’ve been looking at it and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful.
“If they don’t drop the tax, we’ll probably put a big tariff on the UK.”
The tax is applicable to firms whose global revenues from digital activities exceed £500 million, with over £25 million of those revenues originating from UK users. Mr Trump argued the laws, which have long been a point of contention in UK-US relations, targeted “top companies in the world”.
He commented: “The UK did it, a couple of other people did it. They think they’re going to make an easy buck, that’s why they’ve all taken advantage of our country.”, reports the Express.
The digital services tax remained unaltered under the UK-US trade deal agreed in May 2025, despite being a topic of conversation. When questioned about the size of the tariff, the president stated it would be “more than what they’re getting” from the levy. “What we’ll do is we’ll reciprocate by putting something on that’s equal or greater than what they’re doing,” he declared.
These comments add to the escalating tension in UK-US relations, which have further deteriorated following Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to commit Britain to involvement in the Middle East conflict.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump suggested that the terms of the UK-US trade agreement negotiated last year “can always be changed” during a chat with Sky News.
Addressing MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Sir Keir spoke openly about the pressure being exerted by the US over the Iran war. He informed MPs: “My position on the Iran war has been clear from the start. We’re not going to get dragged into this war. It is not our war.
“A lot of pressure has been applied to me to take a different course, and that pressure included what happened last night. I’m not going to change my mind. I’m not going to yield. It is not in our national interest to join this war, and we will not do so. I know where I stand.”
Mr Trump’s remarks follow several months after similar US threats to introduce new tariffs and export controls on countries implementing digital taxes or regulations that impact American tech giants. A number of European nations, including France, Italy and Spain, currently have a digital services tax in place. In a Truth Social post from August 2025, Mr Trump vowed he would “stand up to countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies”.
“Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology,” he penned. “This must end,” he asserted, promising that “unless these discriminatory actions are removed”, he would “impose substantial additional tariffs” on the exports of offending nations to the US.
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