Former US President Donald Trump during a campaign event at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, Florida, US, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images
With markets in recent weeks cranking up their bets that Donald Trump will win the presidential election, Goldman Sachs economists say that another term for the former U.S. leader could have “profound implications” for the euro area’s economy.
“Our baseline estimates point to a sizeable GDP [gross domestic product] hit of around 1% with a modest 0.1pp [percentage point] lift to inflation,” Goldman Sachs’ Jari Stehn and James Moberly said in a note published Friday before the Saturday assassination attempt.
“Trump’s re-election would thus pose a significant downside risk to our otherwise constructive growth forecast for the Euro area.”
Trade policy uncertainty, added defense and security pressures, and spillover effects from U.S. domestic policies on, for example, taxes could impact Europe, they explained.
Trump says he was grazed by a bullet Saturday during an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania. The shooting left one attendee and the gunman dead, and two more attendees still in critical but stable condition.
Some analysts have suggested the events could boost Trump’s chances of taking back the White House in the U.S. election later this year, and certain assets have already rallied Monday with markets pricing in that possibility.
Even before Saturday, the likelihood of a second Trump presidency had risen following a poor performance from President Joe Biden in a presidential debate a few weeks ago. Goldman Sachs said in its note Friday that betting markets were assigning a probability of around 60% for a Trump win in November, with some reports over the weekend that this figure had risen again.
Trade tensions
Trump’s trade policy, and the uncertainty around it, could be one factor that impacts Europe’s economy, just as it did during his last presidency, analysts Stehn and Moberly said.
Trade tensions between the U.S. administration and the European Union surged during Trump’s last term. Tariffs on European steel and aluminum were introduced by the U.S., which led the EU to counter with duties on U.S. goods. There were monthslong concerns about whether other sectors like autos would see higher duties, which rattled market sentiment.
“Trump has pledged to impose an across-the-board 10% tariff on all U.S. imports (including from Europe), which would likely lead to a sharp increase in trade policy uncertainty, as it did in 2018-19,” the research note from the Wall Street bank said.
Such uncertainty historically has a significant, persistent impact on economic activity in the euro area, the economists said. In 2018 and 2019, uncertainty about trade policy reduced industrial production in the euro area by around 2%, they estimated.
Some countries like Germany are expected to be more heavily impacted as they rely more on industrial production, according to Stehn and Moberly.
Trade tensions could also lead to the euro area’s gross domestic product taking a hit, and while uncertainty about trade policy could see prices fall, higher tariffs could push them back up, according to the economists.
Meeting both the 2% requirement and potentially making up for at least some of the U.S. financial support for Ukraine could impact Europe’s economy, according to Goldman Sachs.
“European countries could therefore be required to fund an additional 0.5% of GDP of defence spending per year during a second Trump term,” the research note said, adding that growth from additional military spending is set to be modest.
Geopolitical uncertainty and risks could also emerge as a result of Trump’s defense policy toward Europe, and his stance on NATO, particularly if it raises questions about how committed the U.S. is to the military alliance, Stehn and Moberly explained.
Spillover from domestic policies
The third way in which Trump’s policies could impact the euro area economy is through U.S. domestic plans, such as tax cuts and less regulation.
“U.S. macro policy shifts during the first Trump term entailed significant spillovers into Europe via stronger U.S. demand and tighter U.S. financial conditions,” Goldman Sachs economists said.
Anticipated tax cuts in the U.S. could boost economic activity in Europe — but paired with other expected market shifts, the overall impact is likely to be limited, according to Stehn and Moberly.
“The net financial spillover, however, would likely be muted as we would expect the effect of higher long-term rates to be offset by a notably weaker euro, consistent with the post-election moves in November 2016,” they said.
Shipping containers are seen at the port of Oakland, as trade tensions continued over U.S. tariffs with China, in Oakland, California, U.S., May 12, 2025.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Receipts from U.S. tariffs hit a record level in April as revenue from President Donald Trump’s trade war started kicking in.
Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday.
That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024. Trump instituted 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports starting April 2, which came on top of other select duties he had leveled previously.
While the U.S. is still running a massive budget deficit, the influx in tariffs helped shave some of the imbalance for April, a month in which the Treasury generally runs a surplus because of the income tax filing deadline hitting in mid-month.
The surplus totaled $258.4 billion for the month, up 23% from the same period a year ago. That cut the fiscal year-to-date total to $1.05 trillion, which is still 13% higher than a year ago.
Also on an annual basis, receipts rose 10% in April from 2024, while outlays declined 4%. Year to date, receipts are up 5%, while expenditures have risen 9%.
High interest rates are still posing a budgetary burden. Net interest on the $36.2 trillion national debt totaled $89 billion in April, higher than every other category except Social Security. For the fiscal year, net interest has run to $579 billion, also second highest of any outlay.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the trade agreement reached over the weekend represents another stage in the U.S. shaking its reliance on Chinese products.
Though the U.S. “decoupling” itself from its need for cheap imports from the China has been discussed for years, the process has been a slow one and unlikely to ever mean a complete break.
However, Bessent said there are now specific elements of decoupling in place that are vital to U.S. interests. The U.S. imported nearly $440 billion in goods from China in 2024, running a $295.4 billion trade deficit.
“We do not want a generalized decoupling from China,” he said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “But what we do want is a decoupling for strategic necessities, which we were unable to obtain during Covid and we realized that efficient supply chains were not resilient supply chains.”
When the pandemic struck in 2020, demand in the U.S. shifted from one reliant more on services to a greater focus on goods. That meant greater difficulty in obtaining material for multiple products including big-ticket appliances and automobiles. The technology industry, with its reliance on semiconductors, was also hit. What followed was an inflation surge in the U.S. not seen in more than 40 years.
The details of the U.S.-China pact are still sketchy, but U.S. officials have said so-called reciprocal tariffs will be suspended though broad-based 10% duties will remain in effect.
“We are going to create our own steel. [Tariffs] protect our steel industry. They work on critical medicines, on semiconductors,” Bessent said. “We are doing that, and the reciprocal tariffs have nothing to do with the specific industry tariffs.”
The agreement between the two sides is essentially a 90-day pause that will see reciprocal duties halted though the 10% tariff as well as a 20% charge related to fentanyl remain in place.
Bessent expressed encouragement on the fentanyl issue in which Chinese officials “are now serious about assisting the U.S. in stopping the flow of precursor drugs.” Bessent did not indicate a specific date when the next round of talks will be held but indicated it should be in the next several weeks.