President Donald Trump on Monday said he would slap Russia with “very severe” secondary tariffs if President Vladimir Putin does not come to a cease-fire with Ukraine within 50 days.
Trump announced the move during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, telling reporters that he was “disappointed” in Putin.
“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days,” Trump said. He did not provide specifics on how the tariffs would be implemented, though he said the tariffs would start at about “100%.”
“I use trade for a lot of things,” Trump said. “But it’s great for settling wars.”
TRUMP SAYS US WILL SEND PATRIOT MISSILES TO UKRAINE, ADDS THAT PUTIN ‘TALKS NICE AND THEN HE BOMBS EVERYBODY’
Trump’s proposed secondary tariffs are expected to have a more severe impact, hitting Russia’s trade partners with the aim of further isolating Moscow economically.
Previous sanctions have allowed Russia to still earn hundreds of billions of dollars through selling oil to countries such as China and India.
In addition to the tariff threat, Trump confirmed a deal with NATO allies to sell them arms for aid to Ukraine.
Trump said billions of dollars worth of U.S. arms would be purchased from allies like Germany, Finland and Denmark that will be “quickly distributed” to Ukraine.
“This is really big,” Rutte told reporters as he sat next to Trump in the Oval Office.
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and Reuters contributed to this report.
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