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.

Donald Trump is considering plans to impose a 10 per cent tariff on the EU, The Telegraph understands. The move would pour fuel on the blooming global trade war which began on Saturday when the new US president slapped sweeping levies on goods imported from Mexico, Canada and China.

While arriving in Maryland from Florida, Trump told the BBC that tariffs on EU goods imported into the US could happen "pretty soon". "They don't take our cars, they don't take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them.