Trump threatens Russia with sanctions and tariffs if peace with Ukraine is not reached in 50 days

The United States could impose crippling secondary tariffs on Russia if the three-year-old war it has been waging against Ukraine is not brought to an end by September 2, President Donald Trump has said.

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump said he’s “very unhappy” with Russia and Putin, and pledged to impose what he described as “very severe tariffs” on Moscow “if we don’t have a deal in 50 days.”

He said the tariffs — actually secondary sanctions against countries purchasing Russian oil — would be as high as 100 percent, effectively doubling the cost of imports from any country targeted by them.

Trump ripped into the Russian leader, accusing him of being “all talk” after months of U.S. efforts to broker a deal to end the war he started by ordering an invasion of Ukraine, and said he’d prefer not to use the powerful secondary sanctions he’s threatened but stressed that the war “has got to stop.”

“I hope we don’t get to the point where we do, but I’ve been hearing so much talk. It’s all talk. It’s all talk. And then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people,” he said.

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