French finance minister calls Trump’s trade war ‘idiotic’, plans US trip

French Finance Minister Eric Lombard slammed the burgeoning trade war between the US and the EU as “idiotic”, promising to travel to the US in the coming days to try to de-escalate the situation. US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to slap 200 percent tariffs on European alcoholic drinks after the EU announced its own retaliatory measures to Washington’s blanket steel duties.