Trump Threatens 100% Secondary Tariffs on Russia If No Ukraine Deal in 50 Days

President Donald Trump says he will impose a 100% secondary tariff on Russia if a peace deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is not reached in 50 days.  

Trump appears to have grown increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks as Russia has rejected a deal to end the war.  

“I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it does not seem to get there,” Trump said Monday while talking to reporters in the Oval Office during his meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. 

“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%,” Trump said, adding that they would be “secondary tariffs”; meaning, counties that trade with Russia would be tariffed.  

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and since then, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with about $67 billion in military assistance, according to the State Department.  

“It wasn’t my war, it was [President Joe Biden’s] war,” Trump said, adding that he hopes “we don’t have to do it,” referring to imposing the 100% secondary tariffs on Russia. Trump campaigned on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, stating it would be a Day One objective.

Trump also announced a major deal with NATO, in which the U.S. will manufacture weapons for NATO, and NATO will pay for the weapons.  and NATO will pay for the weapons.  

“In a nutshell, we’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they’ll be sent to NATO,” he said, adding, “NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries.”  

“This is really big news,” said NATO chief Rutte, seated beside the president.  

Rutte said Trump called him on Thursday and said he wants Ukraine to have the ability to defend itself against Russia, but wants Europeans to pay for it, “which is totally logical,” the NATO chief added.  

“This is building on the tremendous success of the NATO summit,” Rutte said. During the NATO summit at The Hague in June, NATO allies agreed to increase defense spending from 2% to 5% of their respective gross domestic products by 2035. 

The latest deal between NATO and the U.S. means that NATO will work with Ukraine to make sure Ukraine has access to “massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition, etc.,” Rutte said. 

Rutte called the deal “great news” for Ukraine, adding that if he were Putin, he would begin to take negotiations to end the war a bit more seriously.  

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