"U.S. Misstep Unheeded: Introducing the European Industries Opting for American Product Abstention"
Girl Moya O'Sullivan peered into her cabinets, spying an issue: her cream cheese, toothpaste, mouthwash, whiskey, and soft drinks were all American. They needed to go.
"No more Philadelphia (cream) cheese for me," O'Sullivan tells CNN. "No more Oreos either." Her bathroom closet replaced Oral-B and Listerine, while Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola were ousted from her drinks cabinet.
Irishwoman O'Sullivan, 29, educates history and English to students in Kilkenny. By altering her shopping list, she aims to school the 77 million Americans who voted to re-elect President Donald Trump.
"It's incredibly disheartening to see that half of America would pick him again," she says.
Speaking in a tone more commonly heard in a classroom, she adds: "The Americans didn't learn their lesson the first time. There unfortunately do need to be consequences."
As the Trump administration's trade war with the European Union intensified, a wave of reciprocal economic nationalism flooded Europe. O'Sullivan is part of a small but determined group hoping to hurt the United States with their wallets.
U.S. President Trump has announced that new tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. from all around the globe will be declared on April 2, as part of his package of reciprocal tariffs. The EU is preparing countermeasures of its own, including higher tariffs on American whiskey, motorcycles, beer, poultry, beef, produce like soybeans, tomatoes, and raspberries.
However, protesting the Trump administration is a tougher sell in Europe than eight years ago. Europe's leaders have worked diligently to build bridges with Trump, aiming to avoid the brunt of his tariffs regime, or steer him towards acceptable outcomes in Ukraine and Gaza. And there's a sense of weariness in the air. "Many people are just a bit tired this time around," O'Sullivan admits.
"The first time (Trump's election) happened, people were outraged, and they thought they could fight back against it and win," says Zoe Gardner, a spokesperson for the UK-based protest group Stop Trump Coalition. Now, "people feel much more beaten down," she tells CNN. "People feel less confident in their ability to oppose this."
Do boycotts work?
James Blackledge, a 33-year-old Brit living in Bristol, has made sacrifices too. Like O'Sullivan, he's switched to a locally-made, albeit more expensive, alternative to Philadelphia. "I'm a bit of a mayo monster," he confesses, but he's stopped buying Hellmann's and started making his own. "I've got a little blender, it's quite easy to make."
"I used to grab a coffee from McDonald's every now and then, which I don't do anymore," he adds. Sierra Nevada beers are history as well. And he's not alone. "A lot of my friends, who I've shared this with, claim they've been doing it already for a while," he says. "They'd already stopped (buying U.S. products) when Trump was elected."
O'Sullivan and Blackledge aren't shouting into the void; their displeasure is shared by many on message boards and forums, and both have exchanged ideas online about how to voice their opinions.
Evident is the hunger in Europe to fight back against American corporations. Denmark's largest retailer, the Salling Group, introduced black, star-shaped stickers to supermarket labels earlier this month, which indicate whether a product is made in Europe. Trump's threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, have especially irritated the Danes.
"We have had inquiries from customers who want to buy groceries from European brands," Salling Group chief executioner Anders Hagh wrote on LinkedIn. "Our stores will continue to have brands on the shelves from all over the world, and it will always be up to customers to choose their purchases."
A Swedish Facebook group, calling for people to boycott American goods, boasts 81,000 members; a Danish equivalent has 90,000. Every hour, people ask whether their dog food, soda, cheese, or chocolate is linked to the U.S. and look for alternatives.
The effectiveness of these efforts to impact the exports of American-made staples to Europe is still uncertain. The initial economic protests across Europe are ad-hoc and haven't taken hold among a significant segment of the population, but the looming threat of new tariffs has fortified the determination of some groups and organizations to buy EU-made items instead.
Previous, more widespread economic boycotts in Europe, like recent campaigns against companies with ties to Russia and Israel in the wake of their offensives in Ukraine and Gaza, have enlisted eager participants and claim success in prompting some companies to cut their ties with those countries. However, determining the boycotts' economic impact is difficult.
A 2016 study at the University of Virginia found that, in the U.S., consumers reduced their purchases of French-sounding supermarket brands in the wake of a dispute between Washington and Paris over the war in Iraq. Another study analyzing boycott movements in the U.S. between 1990 and 2005 discovered that these endeavors can impact companies' reputation even if they don't hurt their bottom line. Nevertheless, Boycotters like O'Sullivan remain undeterred when it comes to Trump. "We vote with our money," she says. "Even if it makes no difference, I just don't want my money supporting his economy."
"Moya O'Sullivan, education and English teacher in Kilkenny, is not only changing her shopping list but also her continents, replacing American brands like Oral-B and Listerine with European ones. She aims to demonstrate her discontent towards the Trump administration's tariffs on European products, hoping to join forces with other Europeans in protest;"
"Embodied by individuals like O'Sullivan and James Blackledge, a British resident in Bristol, a wave of European boycotts against American products is surfacing. These boycotters, driven by their dissatisfaction with the Trump administration's policies, are seeking to exert economic pressure on the United States and promote the use of EU-made items;"
"As the trade war between the U.S. and EU continues, the effectiveness of these boycotts in impacting American exports to Europe is yet unclear. However, the determination of groups and organizations, such as the Salling Group in Denmark and various Facebook groups, to buy European goods instead, indicates a growing sentiment of resistance against Trump's policies."
