Trump Threatens Russia With Tariffs Over Ukraine War
- President Trump threatens to impose high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on Russian goods if the country does not concede to a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine.
The tariff threats keep rolling in. This time, President Donald Trump is squaring up with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine .
In a Wednesday post to Truth Social, which has become Trump’s unofficial message board for trade news, the president said he would impose “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs and Sanctions” on Russian goods if the country does concede to a “deal” that would end the conflict.
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He also threatened “various other participating countries” with the same fate should they continue to support Russia’s aggression.
“I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin….” he wrote. “All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”
Trump claimed that the war in Ukraine—which began with a Russian invasion in February of 2022 and has resulted in hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties—would never have started had he been president.
“We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’ NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” he wrote.
Just days into his second term, the president has threatened a number of nations across the globe with new duties for different reasons—and likely with different outcomes in mind.
In the case of Russia, Trump may be seeking to make good on campaign trail promises that he can broker peace by dangling the threat of duties over a nation whose economy is already faltering. On Monday, the Russian Finance Ministry released data revealing that the country is facing an overall deficit of over 3 trillion rubles ($30 billion) for the third year running.
Washington, D.C. trade policy lawyer Josh Teitelbaum told Sourcing Journal Wednesday he believes Trump is leveraging duties to take on challenges well beyond the scope of trade. Tariffs have become a one-size-fits-all solution to foreign policy issues in the president’s eyes.
“Immigration, fentanyl, the dollar as a reserve currency, even the dispute between Russia and Ukraine—Trump has threatened tariffs to create leverage for all of them,” the senior counsel for Akin-Gump added, referencing Trump’s reasoning for threatening countries like Canada, Mexico and even the BRICS Alliance with duties.
From the Oval Office on Tuesday evening, Trump doubled down on his duty threat against BRICS, a trade bloc named for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which has floated the idea of launching its own currency as a means of breaking away from the influence of the U.S. dollar. Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia , Iran and the United Arab Emirates are also a part of the agreement.
“We are going to put at least a 100-percent tariff on the business they do with the United States,” should the Alliance follow through with its plans, he told reporters.
During the exchange, the president seemed to mislabel Spain as a member of BRICS bloc. When a reporter asked about consequences for NATO countries such as Spain and France that do not meet the alliance’s minimum defense spending standard of 2 percent GDP, Trump said Spain’s expenditures were “very low.”
“They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. Do you know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out,” he told the reporter.
Spain’s government sought to swiftly remove itself from the duty discussion. “I don’t know if the affirmation made by President Trump was the result of a mix-up or not, but I can confirm that Spain is not in BRICS,” Spanish Education Minister and government spokesperson Pilar Alegría responded shortly after Trump made his remarks.
