Trump's first cabinet meeting: EU tariffs and blocking Ukraine's entry into NATO

There was a lot of anticipation to see what Donald Trump's first cabinet meeting would hold, and it did not disappoint. Faced with the existing crisis between the United States and Europe arising from the management of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and trade relations, the president announced that he will impose tariffs on all products coming from the European Union (EU).

With spotlights and cameras in front of him, Trump confirmed that the taxes applied to all products coming from the EU will be 25%, the same percentage he will impose on Mexican and Canadian imports.

"We will announce them very soon and they will be 25%, generally speaking, and they will apply to automobiles and all things," the president said just after concluding his first cabinet meeting, which was attended by the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk; Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; and Secretary of Health and Human Services, John F. Kennedy, Jr., among others.

The announcement - which came just days after Trump met with the president of France and top leader of one of the European powers, Emmanuel Macron - caused the euro's share price to fall slightly: by 0.2%.

Trump: "The EU was formed to screw the US"

The discrepancies between the Trump Administration and Brussels are obvious, and even more so after the president announced this battery of tariffs with the aim of protecting US industry and the interests of his fellow citizens, as he assured on the day he officially returned to the White House.

But the imposition of tariffs was not the only message Trump sent to the EU to let it know that "America comes first." The president said the European alliance was created to "screw" the US, to counter its trade and economic might.

"Let's be honest, the European Union was formed to screw the United States," the president stressed in his speech.

Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, starting April 2

Although he did not say the date of the start of tariffs on products coming from the EU, he did give the exact day on which he will start taxing imports coming from Mexico and Canada.

Starting April 2, Mexican and Canadian manufacturers will begin paying tariffs of 25% on all products they export to the United States. In addition, Trump said he will do "nothing" to stop the measure, alluding to the fentanyl that entered from neighboring countries across the border and claimed so many American lives in recent years.

"On April 2," he responded to a question posed to him regarding when the tariffs on Mexico and Canada would go into effect. "I'm not going to stop tariffs, no. Millions of people have died from fentanyl coming in across the border."

Ukraine can "forget" about joining NATO

Another hot topic that came up at the meeting was the lingering conflict between Ukraine and Russia. A war that has entered its third year in force. In this regard, Trump was blunt about the desire of Volodymyr Zelensky's government to be part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"I can tell them that they can forget about joining NATO," Trump declared. What he did confirm was that he will meet with Zelensky this Friday at the White House.

On the conflict and the hypothetical agreement to end the war, the president assured that Vladimir Putin is willing to give in on some of his claims: "Yes, he will. He's going to have to."

Here, Vice President JD Vance seized the moment related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict to defend Trump from those who accuse him of siding with the Kremlin rather than defending Kyiv and aligning himself to the West's position.

"We are not going to do the negotiation in public with the American media.... Every time the president engages in diplomacy, you preemptively accuse him of caving in to Russia. He has conceded nothing to anyone," Vance sentenced.