Trump formally replaces threat to tear up EU trade deal with identical threat scheduled for July 4

The White House has formally walked back its immediate threat to tear up the US-EU trade pact, opting instead to give European leaders a firm deadline to voluntarily surrender before the administration levies "much higher" tariffs that domestic courts have recently ruled illegal.

According to transcripts of remarks delivered Wednesday, the president expressed deep impatience with the European Union's implementation of the agreement, officially replacing his Tuesday morning threat to upend the global auto industry with a Wednesday afternoon threat to upend the global auto industry slightly later in the summer. The revised timetable sets a July 4 deadline for the bloc to reduce tariffs on American imports to zero, a date senior administration aides noted was selected to ensure the inevitable retaliatory trade war would align seamlessly with federal holiday schedules.

Administration officials confirmed the president had temporarily abandoned his initial plan to unilaterally hike tariffs on European car imports following a binding decision by the US Court of International Trade, which struck down his previous 10% global tariff as a gross violation of federal law, though White House counsel noted in a supplementary filing that the executive branch fully expects to ignore the judicial ruling entirely by mid-July.