Washington — President Trump mentioned Monday that the U.S. will impose 100% tariffs on international locations that do enterprise with Russia if there is no such thing as a peace deal to finish the warfare in Ukraine inside 50 days, unveiling his plans to implement secondary sanctions as his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin grows.
“We’ll be doing secondary tariffs if we do not have a deal inside 50 days. It is quite simple,” Mr. Trump mentioned within the Oval Workplace, alongside NATO Secretary Normal Mark Rutte. “And so they’ll be at 100%.”
“We’re very sad, I’m, with Russia,” the president defined.
Mr. Trump additionally mentioned the U.S. has reached a deal to promote weapons to NATO nations, and Rutte mentioned these international locations will in flip ship weapons to Ukraine to replenish their depleted stockpiles. The Pentagon paused shipments of some weapons shipments to Ukraine earlier this month, however Mr. Trump reversed course final week, saying Ukraine should be capable of defend itself.
“We have made a deal at the moment the place we will be sending them weapons and they’ll be paying for them,” Mr. Trump instructed reporters within the Oval Workplace. “We, the US, won’t be having any fee made. We’re not shopping for it, however we’ll manufacture it, and they’ll be paying for it.”
“That is actually massive,” mentioned Rutte, who mentioned Mr. Trump known as him final week to tell him of his resolution. “And the choice is that you really want Ukraine [to have] what it must have to keep up to have the ability to defend itself towards Russia, however you need Europeans to pay for it, which is completely logical.”
Mr. Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin following his a number of calls with the Russian chief since taking workplace in January.
“I all the time dangle up, say, ‘Nicely, that was a pleasant telephone name.’ After which missiles are launched into Kyiv or another metropolis and I say, ‘That is unusual.’ And after that occurs three or 4 occasions, you say, the discuss does not imply something,” he mentioned.
“He is — I do not need to say he is an murderer, however he is a tricky man,” Mr. Trump mentioned of Putin, including that Putin has fooled different presidents, “however he did not idiot me.”
“In the end, discuss would not discuss, it is received to be motion, it is received to be outcomes,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Zelenskyy posted on X Monday afternoon that he spoke with Mr. Trump, and thanked him and the U.S. for the “willingness to assist Ukraine.”
“We mentioned the required means and options with the president to supply higher safety for folks from Russian assaults and to strengthen our positions,” Zelenskyy wrote. “We’re able to work as productively as doable to attain peace.”
Some in Congress have pushed for even increased secondary sanctions on Russia because the warfare grinds on. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal are pushing laws within the Senate that may give the president the flexibility to impose tariffs of as much as 500% on any nation that does enterprise with Russia. Graham instructed “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that these sanctions would give Mr. Trump a “sledgehammer” to finish the warfare.
In a joint assertion Monday, Graham and Blumenthal mentioned the president’s announcement was “an actual government hammer to drive the events to the negotiating desk.”
“The purpose is just not extra tariffs and sanctions — the purpose is to entice Putin to come back to the peace desk,” they mentioned.
The senators mentioned they’ll proceed their legislative work to implement as much as 500% tariffs on international locations that purchase Russian oil and gasoline.
Graham additionally instructed “Face the Nation” that the U.S. has “given Ukraine rather a lot. We give them the cash, we give them army help.” However he famous that there might be a “plan the place America will start to promote to our European allies great quantities of weapons that may profit Ukraine.”
Republican Rep. French Hill, who spearheaded laws in the course of the Biden administration giving the president authority to grab international property, mentioned on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that now could be the time to behave.
“I feel it is time for the president to transform these seized property to a belief account for the advantage of Ukraine,” Hill mentioned.
No American president has ever seized the sovereign central financial institution property of a rustic that the U.S. is just not at warfare with. Former U.S. officers instructed CBS Information that the Biden administration declined to make use of that authority due to European opposition associated to the unintended penalties on their very own banking programs and financial system that may end result from seizing these state property.
