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President Donald Trump criticized one publicly traded company on Tuesday as he vowed retaliation against tariffs that had hurt another.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday took his latest swipe at Twitter for what he says is unfair treatment, as he vowed to “reciprocate” against the European Union in the wake of Harley-Davidson’s report of a profit drop in the first quarter.
‘MORE, AND FAIRER’ SOCIAL-MEDIA COMPANIES
Trump used Twitter, on which he has nearly 60 million followers, to attack the company and say “they don’t treat me well as a Republican.”
The president has frequently criticized the social-media platform for what he calls bias against conservatives. Earlier this month, Twitter’s TWTR, +16.55% director of public policy for the U.S. told Congress that silencing any political perspective is “antithetical to our commitment to free expression.” Still, Trump urged lawmakers to be involved in overseeing the company and said, “Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!”
Twitter’s stock soared Tuesday after the company reported first-quarter results. Twitter topped expectations for user growth by a wide margin.
AIMING AT EU
After Harley-Davidson HOG, +0.84% reported a nearly 27% drop in first-quarter profit, Trump cited comments by Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo about EU tariffs forcing the motorcycle maker to move U.S. jobs overseas.
“So unfair to U.S. We will Reciprocate!” Trump wrote in a tweet. It was a change of tune from Trump on the iconic American brand, against which he’d called for a boycott last year. In June 2018, Harley executives said they were planning to shift production of motorcycles being sold in European markets to overseas factories. They said the move was in response to retaliatory tariffs the EU slapped on Harleys after Trump imposed duties on steel and aluminum imports from Europe.
The threat of retaliatory action comes amid a wider trade spat with the EU, in which Trump has threatened tariffs on European cars. The Trump administration also wants to put tariffs on $11.2 billion worth of EU goods to offset what it says are unfair European subsidies for plane maker Airbus AIR, +2.13%
Trump had no open-press events scheduled on Tuesday. He fired off other tweets criticizing a favorite target, the mainstream media, including “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough, whose show was simultaneously airing live on MSNBC. “Hi Donald, how you doing? We love that you watch us,” Scarborough said.
Trump was also scheduled to participate in a swearing-in ceremony for Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that is closed to the media.
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