The tariffs Donald Trump has imposed for the past 48 hours on most of the planet are still pretty “blurry” and the whole process is “fresh” and officially, other than some statements from foreign leaders, we don’t have much tangible evidence of a response to Washington, at least not from those who have taken the most significant hits.

Yesterday’s statements from the Commission‘s side were in essence a reiteration of the Union‘s firm position for about three months now on the US President‘s threats. The European “we will respond but we are open to dialogue” is not novel and Ursula von der Leyen simply reiterated the European position until there is at least a coordinated response.

This time, despite years of missteps and weaknesses, Europe understood early what was coming. The truth is of course that the American President never hid and concealed his positions and intentions either. The European mechanism is now in the final stretch for its own announcements, knowing better now how to respond to the White House. The European tariff plan will most likely have the escalation that Trump himself has kept as a “caveat” and is not going to open the “fan” of all the weapons the EU has at its disposal at the first…

But apart from the collective response, Trump and his own new US will also be confronted with individual measures from EU members. Already France and Spain have made it clear that there will be individual moves from Paris and Madrid to protect not only domestic economies but also the precious for domestic balance trade relations with both the other side of the Atlantic and the rest of the world. Particularly at the Iliac Palace, consultations over the last 24 hours between Emanuel Macron with both his economic staff and representatives from the agricultural and trade sectors have been ongoing and the French President seems to have made the decision especially the French response to be one of the most vocal.

Sources close to Macron note that the French President has personally sent a message to two of his country’s major investors in the US and has asked them for the time being to “freeze” multi-billion euro investments they had announced since the end of 2024 in the US. The same sources say that the response of the two very powerful economic players have accepted the French President’s proposal and have made it clear that they will be in communication and coordination with the French Government. Spain seems to have chosen to move in the same vein with Pedro Sánchez stressing to the important Spanish companies that today they will have to reorganize all their planned US investments. Of course there are also countries within the circle of 27 that have chosen to align themselves with Trump’s moves such as Hungary and possibly Italy.

The “liberation day” which was essentially the beginning of a global economic war will have data serious consequences across the globe. The problem with the United States, however, is that beyond the way it has chosen to deal with long-time close friends – which is in fact no different from the way it deals with its chronic enemies – it will bring significant differences in relationships on which it has for over 80 years built its economic and investment dominance. The option of isolationism is not an untested option that Trump “invented”. Rather, it is an option that has long remained in “dusty drawers” because it failed. Returning to a failed path will be costly for everyone but especially for the one making the choice. The risk, as American economic analysts and several Republican senators point out, is too great in proportion to the “cloudy” gains it may bring.