For those who came in late, Apple wants to avoid paying $14.8 billion in Irish taxes because it does not want to, which as far as the American government is concerned is a good enough excuse.

iPhone maker Apple took its case to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, in December after the European Commission issued the record tax demand saying the US company won sweetheart tax deals from the Irish government which amounted to illegal subsidies.

The first to complain was the Obama administration. In that case it was not that his government was hacked off with the EU, it was simply that it thought that it should be paying its tax in the US.

The Trump administration, which has tentatively proposed a tax break on $2.6 trillion in corporate profits being held offshore as part of its tax reform, has not said anything in public about the case, but is understood to be wanting the same.

"I can confirm the United States filed an application with the European Union General Court to intervene in the case involving the retroactive application of state aid rules to Apple," said a White House source.