US President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed the EU for fining Google $5 billion for harming its competitors, tweeting that the incident proved that the bloc has "taken advantage of the US, but not for long!"

To Trump, the fine appeared to serve as the latest proof of Europe's exploitation of the US on a variety of matters, including trade and nations' contributions to defence spending and it came a day after he threatened "tremendous retribution", particularly on European-made cars, if the EU doesn't change its trade policies.