The president’s threats to slap duties on goods imported from the European Union are part of a pattern of directing the harshest penalties at the United States’ closest allies.

Last-minute phone calls pull the North American neighbours back from the brink of a trade war, but the US is still targeting Chinese imports.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer had hoped to spend Monday marking a new milestone in the UK’s much-promised reset with European Union five years after Brexit. Instead, he received a dramatic reminder of how much harder that will be with Donald Trump back in the White House.