President Trump warned the United Kingdom against trying to “make an easy buck” on American big tech firms with the digital services tax which nets Westminster almost a billion pounds a year.
The UK could be subjected to new tariffs if it doesn’t stop taxing American tech giants, U.S. President Donald Trump warned in Oval Office remarks late Thursday. President Trump said: “they better be careful. If they don’t drop the tax, we’ll probably put a big tariff on the UK.”
Keeping the tax on U.S. tech giants wouldn’t be worthwhile, Trump said, because “What we’ll do is we’ll reciprocate by putting something on that’s equal or greater than what they’re doing”.
The UK digital services tax imposes a two per cent levy on relevant activity of large digital companies active in the social media, internet search, and online marketplace spaces. The British government argues that these companies make significant profits from operating in the United Kingdom, but would do so without contributing to the social good of the country that creates the conditions for them to operate if some sort of tax wasn’t levied.
Companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and eBay have paid the levy in recent years, which in 2025 raised £800 million for Westminster in 2025.
Several countries have such laws and the OECD is working on a years-long bid to replace them with a single global taxation scheme on digital profits, which are argued to defy borders and traditional taxation in a way that conventional businesses do not. The UK has pledged to abolish its digital services tax, but only when a new global system comes online. As the home of most of the world’s largest digital companies, the United States government has consistently opposed these plans, and President Trump has been part of that.
In his Oval Office remarks, President Trump acknowledged that it isn’t only the United Kingdom that imposes this tax. He said: “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.”
The remarks come as part of a broader cooling by President Trump towards the British government. The most clearly Anglophile U.S. President in decades, Trump has repeatedly made clear his affection for the country itself and his interest in it doing well, and the Royal family, but has evidently grown tired of the combative stance of the left-wing leadership of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
As reported on Thursday, President Trump again expressed his desire to help Britain out by advising the government to act in the national interest on energy prices and border control. Failing to take actiuon soon on his hot-button topics could leave PM Starmer unable to recover his rock-bottom popularity, the President reflected, adding: “he can recover, but if he doesn’t [act], I don’t think he has a chance.”
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