Trump threatens steep sanctions if Moscow refuses a peace deal, says he doesn’t want to ’hurt Russia’ and intends to do Putin ‘a very big favor’
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose steep taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on Russian exports if a peace deal with Ukraine is not reached soon.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump stated that he doesn’t want to “hurt Russia.” “I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin — and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX,” he wrote.
Trump also said that Russia “helped” the United States “win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process.” Calling for an immediate end to the Russia-Ukraine war, he claimed he intends to do “a very big FAVOR” for Vladimir Putin and Russia, whose “Economy is failing.”
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump said.
He added that this could be done “the easy way or the hard way,” but “the easy way is always better.”
The post includes no concrete proposals or direct appeals to either Russia or Ukraine.
