This is what you said, "Trump claims Europe has put trade-barriers on US products for a long time, creating a trade-deficit."
Basically he is blaming everyone else in the world for the fact that the USA has the world's largest trade deficit. Not just Europe but also Mexico, China, India, Canada and Japan.
Trade deficits occur because a country imports more than it exports, that's all it is. If you want to get rid of a trade deficit, the solution is to be more competitive.
Starting a trade war makes no sense, for every billion dollars that the USA sanctions Europe, they will retaliate for exactly the same amount in return. The result is that both sides lose money and jobs. Nobody wins, everyone loses.
Whereas free trade creates the highest overall benefit to all sides, when countries specialize in producing what they have a comparative advantage in, and trading it with other countries. That's a fundamental concept in modern economics.
Maybe if the USA didn't drop so many bombs all over the world, and focused more on becoming economically competitive, they would have a trade surplus like Germany and South Korea do. How many trillions has the USA wasted on wars these past decades.
