US President, Donald Trump has announced that the U.S. will hit 100 percent tariffs on Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days.
The president slammed Putin while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office as his anger at the Russian dictator boiled over amid its escalating attacks on Ukraine.
‘We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent,’ he said in the Oval Office.
‘I’m disappointed in President Putin. I thought we would’ve had a deal two months ago,’ he went on about the proposed peace deal.
Trump also struck a deal with NATO to send sophisticated weaponry, including Patriot missiles, to Ukraine. He insisted that the U.S. will not be footing the bill after being taken advantage of for so long.
‘We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending [Ukraine] weapons and [Europe] is going to be paying for them,’ he stated.
‘We – the United States – will not be having any payment made. We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it.’
Trump went on to say that the U.S. makes the ‘best equipment, the best missiles’ and the European nations ‘know that.’
‘We make the best and we’re going to be sending the best to NATO,’ he went on.
The president stated that at least 17 Patriot missiles are ready to be shipped to Ukraine.
‘We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening,’ Trump said in his latest barb at Putin.
‘We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100 percent for that, and that’s the way we want it,’ Trump said.
There are also reports he will send offensive weaponry, after many of his allies have criticized the way the Biden administration pushed weapons out the door following Russia’s 2022 invasion.