President Donald Trump speaks before boarding Air Force One at Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, on June 6, 2019 and fly to Normandy, France, to attend the 75th D-Day Anniversary.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump sounded off on the conversation around big tech and antitrust on Monday in a live interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Trump criticized the European Union’s large fines on American big tech companies, but suggested that antitrust issues are worth exploring, after he was asked about Facebook and antitrust laws.
“They’re actually attacking our companies,” Trump said. “But we should be doing what they’re doing. They think there’s a monopoly but I’m not sure that they think that they just figure this is easy money. We’ll sue Apple for $7 billion and we’ll make a settlement or win the case. So I think it is a bad situation but obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly. “
Trump also said big tech companies were biased against him.
“I can tell you they discriminate against me,” he said when asked about antitrust scrutiny around companies including Facebook, Amazon and Google. “People talk about collusion. The real collusion is between the Democrats and these companies because they were so against me during my election run. Everybody said if you don’t have them, you can’t win. Well I won, and I’ll win again because we’re doing well and we’re not the fools anymore.”
Trump also talked about Huawei and 5G.
When asked whether he views Huawei as a national security threat or leverage in trade negotiations with China, Trump said it could be both.
“I do see it as a threat,” he said. “At the same time, it could be very well that we do something with respect to Huawei as part of our trade negotiation with China.”
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
