US President Donald Trump during a healthcare affordability event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> has delivered a stark warning to the U.K., threatening to impose steep tariffs on the country unless it drops its digital services tax on U.S. tech companies. <\/p>\n The tax, which was first introduced in 2020, is a 2% levy on the revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces that derive value from U.K. users. This includes several U.S. companies like Alphabet<\/a>‘s Google, Meta<\/a> and Apple<\/a>. <\/p>\n Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump criticized those he said were seeking to make an “easy buck” by targeting American companies.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n “If they don’t drop the tax, we’ll probably put a big tariff on the U.K.,” he added, without providing a specific figure.<\/p>\n CNBC has contacted the U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n Britain’s ruling Labor government has previously defended the tax, which it sees as an important fiscal measure given it raised revenues<\/a> of around \u00a3800 million ($1.08 billion) in the 2024-2025 financial year.<\/p>\n The measure went unchanged when the U.S. and U.K. agreed to a trade deal<\/a> in May last year, although Trump told Sky News earlier in the month that the terms of the agreement “can always be changed<\/a>.” <\/p>\n Trump’s comments follow a series of publicly critical remarks<\/a> about U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in recent weeks, reviving trans-Atlantic trade tensions ahead of a four-day U.S. state visit<\/a> by King Charles III and Queen Camilla.<\/p>\n The king and queen are scheduled to travel to the U.S. on Monday and are expected to meet Trump at the White House.<\/p>\n