The dour mood at Germany's crisis-hit auto giant Volkswagen has given way to angst and fury as US President Donald Trump has escalated a trade war against friends and foes alike.

Veteran auto workers who spent decades at the plants of Germany's storied industrial titan fear for the worst since Trump has ramped up a range of import tariffs, sparking global market turmoil.

"A catastrophe, terrible," said retired VW autoworker Richard Arnold, 85, expressing a sentiment widely shared in Wolfsburg, where the carmaker is headquartered and which is dominated by the smoke stacks of its own power plant.

A veteran of Europe's biggest car manufacturer, Arnold predicted that "America will suffer just as much with the price increases" sparked by Trump's aggressive trade policies.

Volkswagen -- which has been battered for years by high energy and labour costs as well as stiff competition from China, especially in electric vehicles -- announced in December, after a bitter, months-long industrial dispute, that it would cut about 35,000 jobs by 2030.

Last week Trump, who has long........

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