The United States builds wealth. The European Union increasingly seems content to just redistribute it.
That divide was on unusually blunt display this week when France’s Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, celebrated the EU’s roughly 4.6 billion euros, about $5.2 billion, in Google antitrust penalties and interest as a “new revenue source” for Brussels. In a Franceinfo television interview, Haddad said the money should automatically reduce what EU member states must pay into the bloc’s budget.
In other words, while American companies and markets do the hard, risky work of creating technologies powerful enough to generate billions in value, European officials can sit back, impose an enormous penalty, and use the proceeds to ease the cost of financing the EU’s ambitions.
NEW: French officials are openly celebrating EU fines on American tech as a source of cash.
— Public Policy Solutions (@Policy_Solution) September 30, 2026
Macron ally Benjamin Haddad hailed Google’s $5.2 billion penalty as a “windfall” and “new revenue stream” for the EU.
Now Brussels is wielding the Digital Markets Act to squeeze U.S.… pic.twitter.com/tBHSNujUDZ
“This is a new revenue stream for the European Union, 4.6 billion euros, that should automatically lower the contributions of all member states,” Haddad said.
“This is a discussion we have with the European Union every single time, precisely to keep member states’ contributions under control,” the French MP added. “Therefore, this 4.6 billion-euro windfall tied to the Google fine is good news for the member states as well.”
The White House was not happy, saying the move amounted to "extortion."
“President Trump has unequivocally warned trading partners against imposing digital services taxes, fines, and other forms of extortion on America’s leading technology sector. The administration remains committed to raising these issues with our trading partners,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a Tuesday statement.
This comes as Europe’s economy has largely stagnated in recent years, with policymakers more focused on dividing existing wealth, regulating its creation, and treating climate policy as an economic end in itself, than on generating the next wave of prosperity. Europe has largely failed to rise alongside the United States in the industries defining the new frontier of humanity: cloud computing, artificial intelligence, advanced technology, and the companies built around them.
The continent still has its banks, luxury brands, industrial giants, and a handful of world-class carmakers. But they are largely remnants of a 20-year-old economy, industries Europe seems hellbent on clinging to as the foundation of its prosperity. They are not the building blocks of technological or economic dominance in an age defined by computing power, artificial intelligence, and rapid innovation.
Europe has grown increasingly comfortable with waning influence and softer ambition: more interested in freezing the world in place than forging a new path through it. That is Europe’s choice. It is not, however, an excuse to treat the United States as a piggy bank. If Europe has chosen the road to economic decline, America should not be expected to bankroll the trip.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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