President Donald Trump says the U.S. will slap 100 percent tariffs on Russia if Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days.
The president tore into Putin while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office as his anger at the Russian dictator boiled over amid its escalating attacks on Ukraine.
Trump said he’ll be imposing ‘very very powerful’ secondary tariffs on Russia in 50 days if a deal to end the war isn’t reached.
‘We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent,’ he said in the Oval Office.
‘I’m disappointed in President Putin. I thought we would’ve had a deal two months ago,’ he went on about the proposed peace deal.
Trump also struck a deal with NATO to send sophisticated weaponry, including Patriot missiles, to Ukraine. He insisted that the U.S. will not be paying after being taken advantage of for so long.
‘We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending [Ukraine] weapons and [Europe] is going to be paying for them,’ he stated.
‘We – the United States – will not be having any payment made. We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it.’
Trump went on to say that the U.S. makes the ‘best equipment, the best missiles’ and the European nations ‘know that.’
Trump on Sunday night directed yet another sharp comment toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Russia continues to bombard its neighbor with missile and drone attacks.
He confirmed that the U.S. will send Patriot missile defense systems that Ukraine says is vital to its defense, after his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instituted a pause that caused a sudden clash within his administration.
There are also reports he will send offensive weaponry, after many of his allies have criticized the way way the Biden administration pushed weapons out the door following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
One tool potentially at his disposal is $3.85 billion in leftover drawdown authority from the prior administration.
Trump has only hinted at aspects of the deal, which he has described has having European allies foot the bill for U.S. weaponry.
‘We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening,’ Trump said in his latest barb at Putin.
‘We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100 percent for that, and that’s the way we want it,’ Trump said.
The talks are set to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is back from Malaysia after commenting on the hunt for an imposter who has been using AI to impersonate him, and Hegseth, who has been under fire for his handling of Ukraine after reportedly failing to brief the president on major policy moves.
Describing the plan, Trump said: ‘We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100 percent for that, and that’s the way we want it.’
Trump gave the latest hint in his stunning U-turn last week, when he said that the U.S. will ‘have to’ once again send powerful weapons to Ukraine, despite his administration pausing critical arms shipments the week before.
Hegseth was sitting Trump at the time during his cabinet meeting.
‘I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?’ Trump replied when asked who ordered the weapons halt.
Trump and his top aides have made skeptical comments about the effort to arm Ukraine, which dramatically turned back the thrust of Russia’s initial invasion but has been stuck in a war of attrition on its own territory.
A push into Russia’s Kursk region eventually got repelled by Russian forces backed up by soldiers sent by North Korea.
Before Trump selected him as his running mate, JD Vance said: ‘I do not think that it is in America’s interest to continue to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine,’ saying back in 2022: ‘I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.’
