Germany goes to war with Donald Trump after the President-elect threatens auto industry with tariffs after he is sworn into office

PRESIDENT-elect Donald Trump enraged Germany by threatening a 35 per cent tax on cars exported to the US.

He accused Germans of spurning American-made motors while inundating the States with BMWs and Mercs.

He said yesterday: “If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of their building, right? How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany?

“Not very many, maybe none at all. It’s a one-way street.”

He also incensed Berlin by blasting its policy of letting in a million migrants — branding it “catastrophic”.

Shares in BMW, VW and Daimler slumped after his comments.

Germany’s deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, who is also economic minister, said the solution was for the US to “build better cars”.

He also said the migrant crisis was linked to “flawed interventionist” US foreign policy “especially the Iraq war”.

The row exploded as the man tipped to be Mr Trump’s ambassador to Brussels suggested the incoming president wants to wreck the EU.

Ted Malloch said a US-UK trade deal after Brexit could be offered to other independent-minded EU states. He described it in a BBC interview as a “genius” way of inspiring more Brexit-style referendums.

Warned it could spell the break-up of the EU, he said: “You’re dealing with Donald Trump — he’s willing to turn the table over and be quite different.”

German chancellor Angela Merkel’s diplomatic response was to say that “we Europeans have our fate in our own hands”.