President Donald Trump said Monday that if Russia does not agree to make a deal with Ukraine to end the war soon, he would place “very severe” tariffs on the country.
Trump’s announcement came as he spoke with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House. He said they were discussing how he was “very unhappy” with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the delay to end the war.
“We’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%, you call them secondary tariffs,” Trump said.
Trump has long promised that he would be able to end the Russia-Ukraine war quickly. Since taking office in January, he’s worked with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reach a deal, but has hit several roadblocks along the way.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” he said.
The announcement and threat of tariffs on Russia show Trump is eager to end the war and marked a shift in support for Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
The secondary tariffs would impact countries that buy goods from Russia, including China, India, Brazil and Turkey. It’s not known what products would be impacted by Trump’s threat, but Russian oil could impact many countries, NBC News noted.
Trump also shared that the U.S. and NATO had reached a deal over weapons. The U.S. will sell weapons to NATO, who will send them to Ukraine. It comes after the Trump administration temporarily halted sending weapons to Ukraine’s depleted inventory, but later said the country needs defensive help.
“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 said.