Trump plans blacklist for nations jailing American citizens

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday paving the way for a new blacklist of countries accused of unjustly detaining American citizens, warning of tough penalties including travel bans.

The order allows Washington to designate nations as “state sponsors of wrongful detention,” a move likened to the powerful designation of state sponsors of terrorism.

“With this executive order, the president is making it clear that American citizens will not be used as bargaining chips,” White House aide Sebastian Gorka told reporters in the Oval Office.

While no country was immediately named, a senior official said China, Iran, and Afghanistan are under review for their alleged involvement in what the US calls “hostage diplomacy.”

Nations placed on the list could face sanctions, tighter export controls, and visa bans for officials involved in detentions.

In a rarely used measure, the State Department may also prohibit US citizens from traveling to blacklisted countries.

At present, North Korea is the only country where such a travel ban is in force imposed after American student Otto Warmbier was imprisoned there in 2016 and later returned in a coma, dying shortly after.

Officials added that the new blacklist could also extend to groups controlling territory without international recognition.

The United States across administrations has put a top priority on freeing Americans overseas, negotiating prisoner swaps to free high-profile detainees including in Russia.

Trump has trumpeted his record on freeing Americans, with officials saying 72 prisoners have been released overseas under his watch.

A US official said that the new executive order would make it easier to take action without going through a “burdensome” process.

The United States can also remove countries if it decides they have come into compliance.

The State Department routinely helps Americans detained overseas and then assesses whether they were jailed for wrongful reasons, including as political bargaining chips.

Under former president Joe Biden, China released all Americans considered wrongfully detained in part in return for the United States loosening a warning against Americans traveling to the Asian power, advice that had hurt the business climate.

‘Unfair’ Google ruling

US President Donald Trump lashed out at the European Union Friday for slapping Google with an “unfair” $3.47 billion antitrust fine, threatening retaliatory tariffs if the bloc does not repeal the measure.

Trump’s intervention came a day after he hosted tech titans for a gala dinner at the White House including Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin.

“Europe today ‘hit’ another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 Billion Dollar fine, effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“Very unfair, and the American taxpayer will not stand for it!” Trump said.

Trump said the Google fine came on top of a series of other cases including Apple, which in 2016 was ordered by Brussels to pay Ireland back taxes totalling 13 billion euros plus interest.

“They should get their money back!” he said, adding that if not then he would start proceedings for retaliatory tariffs to “nullify the unfair penalties.”

During the White House dinner on Thursday, Trump had congratulated Pichai and Brin over a US judge’s ruling earlier this week which rejected the government’s demand that Google sell its Chrome web browser as part of a major antitrust case.