Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, April 23, 2026, Trump threatened to impose a “big tariff” on the United Kingdom unless it drops its digital services tax on U.S. tech companies. The tax, introduced in 2020, is a 2% levy on the U.K. revenues of search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces, and applies to companies including Alphabet's Google, Meta, and Apple. It raised about £800 million (about $1.08 billion) in the 2024-2025 financial year.
“We have been looking at it, and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the U.K., so they better be careful,” Trump said, according to CNBC. “If they don't drop the tax, we'll probably put a big tariff on the U.K.” He did not specify a rate. The next day, Downing Street said the U.K. would not scrap the tax: “It is a hugely important tax to make sure that those businesses continue to pay their share,” the prime minister's spokesperson said.
The timing was confrontational. King Charles III and Queen Camilla were due to begin a four-day U.S. state visit on Monday, April 27, including a meeting with Trump at the White House, and Trump had been publicly critical of Prime Minister Keir Starmer in recent weeks. The tax was left untouched when the U.S. and U.K. agreed to a trade deal in May 2025, though Trump had told Sky News that the terms “can always be changed.” The threat came as Reuters reported a leaked internal Pentagon email that floated suspending Spain from NATO and reviewing U.S. support for Britain's claim to the Falkland Islands as punishment for allies that did not back the Iran war (see A Leaked Pentagon Memo Floats Suspending Spain From NATO and Reviewing British Sovereignty Over the Falkland Islands as Punishment for Allies Who Sat Out the Iran War).
Update (October 2, 2026): In June, Trump escalated to threatening a 100% tariff on European countries, including the U.K., that tax U.S. digital companies. In August, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told The Times the threat was “not a bluff,” according to The Independent, though he set no deadline.
Correction (October 2, 2026): An earlier version dated the remarks to April 24; CNBC and the Guardian report that Trump spoke on Thursday, April 23. It also described the U.K. government's defense of the tax as a quotation, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had mocked a U.K.-France-led Hormuz mission the same week, and called the episode three separate hits on the U.K. in one week. The defense of the tax is now quoted from Downing Street's own statement, and the Hegseth claim and the tally, which no source in this entry supports, were removed.