President Trump on Monday promised to enact punishing new tariffs on Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end his war against Ukraine.
“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
The U.S. doesn’t trade much with Russia so 100% tariffs may not hurt Moscow much, but Trump would also levy 100% “secondary tariffs” on Russian trading partners — countries like China and India that buy Russian oil and gas, for example — as he tries to pressure Moscow to end the war that has been raging since February 2022.
Trump also unveiled a new partnership that will see European allies buy U.S. weapons systems, including Patriot missile batteries, so they can deliver weaponry to Ukraine, which has faced a renewed onslaught of aerial attacks from Russia. Trump said the plan calls for European countries to send Ukraine missiles from their existing stocks and then replace those weapons with new purchases from the United States.
Trump on Monday again tried to distance himself from the war, but his economic threat against Moscow and his plans to bolster Ukraine’s military defenses nevertheless represent a marked shift in Trump’s views on the conflict and the players involved, Putin in particular.
“It wasn’t my war. It was Biden’s war,” Trump insisted again on Monday. But he made clear he’s unhappy with Putin and the continuing attacks on Ukraine. Trump said that there have been “about four times” that he thought a deal was close at hand. He said he’s had friendly conversations with Putin but the Russian leader has repeatedly dashed efforts at peace: “I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done, and I always hang up and say, ‘Well, that was a nice phone call’ and then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city,” Trump said. “And after that happens three of four times, you say the talk doesn’t mean anything.”
Trump’s announcement comes just days after the Pentagon paused weapons shipments to Ukraine as part of a review of American military stockpiles. That move was reportedly authorized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth without notifying the White House. After he learned about the pause, Trump reportedly instructed Hegseth to resume shipments.
Trump’s efforts to squeeze Putin come as the Senate has prepared a bipartisan package of severe sanctions against Russia, which could involve tariffs even higher than 100%. “I’m not sure we need it, but it’s certainly good that they’re doing it,” Trump said Monday. “It could be very useful, we’ll have to see.”
Trump threatens other tariffs: Over the weekend, the president also threatened to impose new 30% tariffs on goods from Mexico and the European Union starting August 1.