Trump announces arms deal with NATO for possible tariffs against Russia
During a meeting with NATO chief Mark Latte, Trump announced an arms contract to deliver aid to Ukraine.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump gave an ultimatum when he took office as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Solve the war with Ukraine or pretend to be braces for painful tariffs and catastrophic sanctions.
After six and a half months of fruitless conversation, Trump says he’s ready to move forward. If the peace agreement has not been reached for 50 days, the US president has said he will impose catastrophic economic punishments on Russia and its trading partners to pay attention to the resolution of the war.
“If there’s no 50-day deals, we’re going to put in very strict tariffs,” Trump said on July 14 in his oval office. “About 100% tariffs, you’d call them secondary tariffs.”
Trump’s latest threat to Russia and the related decision to send Ukrainian weapons made in the US and paid by European allies run in parallel with Senate-led efforts to pass crippled sanctions that would cause the country to stricken with heavy tariffs if it purchases Russian energy.
Written by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, the bipartisan bill attracted 85 supporters. If Moscow refuses to settle with Ukraine, it will impose 500% tariffs on the countries that buy or sell Russian oil, gas, or oil.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are trying to advance a bill that Senate and House GOP leaders aimed to bring to the floor before they began their extended break in early August. Trump shows he is open to legislation, but wants to take control when sanctions are raised. This demand puts the president at odds with the democratic sponsors of the bill.
The law, which had gained momentum, returned to Limbo on July 14th after Trump’s tariff announcement.
Putin is making a “terrifying mistake”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Lisch said last week that timing negotiations took place between the Senate and the White House, and that the bill was tailored to provide Trump with flexibility.
Among the Russian leaders, an Idaho Republican said, “I think Putin is absolutely making a terrible mistake. The president has given him every reasonable opportunity to do something.
Sen. John Tune said in a floor speech on July 9 that the senator made “substantial progress” on the bill that “helps Trump to step up leverage at the negotiation table and ends bloodshed in Ukraine.” He said at the time that the Senate would work with the House and the White House to get the bill through Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, declared Fox News on July 13, “I think the house has a big appetite for that,” and said he would bring the bill to vote.
However, when Trump informed Putin that “severe tariffs” were on the way the next day, Thune suggested the Senate would halt.
“It seems like the president is trying to do this on his own right now,” Thune told reporters. “If at some point the President concludes that it makes sense and adds the value and leverage necessary to negotiate those to move the bill, we do that. We’re ready.”
Trump says the sanctions bill is “very convenient.”
Earlier in the day, Trump said when he set a deadline for consultations, he was unsure if the law was necessary. He said the 100% secondary tariffs are essentially useful for the same function as the 500% proposed by the Senator.
“They have actually made up pretty good laws, and they’ll probably pass very easily. That includes Democrats,” he said. “I don’t want to say that I don’t need it. It can be very useful because they don’t want to waste their time, we have to look.”
He previously called it an “optional bill” and said, “The President can do whatever he wants.”
In a weekend interview with CBS, Graham showed that Congress is considering changes that give Trump the ability to “dial up and down.”
“The advantage of our approach is to flexibly blend Congressional approval of tariffs and sanctions with the President’s implementation, and to shake up solids legally and politically,” Graham and Blumental said in a joint statement after Trump’s tariff announcement.
The law gives Trump the ability to grant a one-time exemption to the country and goods for up to 180 days if the president considers it in the national security interests of the United States.
China, India, Turkey and Brazil are among the countries that buy Russia’s energy and are most affected by sanctions.
According to the US Trade Representative, in 2024, US imports from Russia amounted to just $3 billion.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast told USA Today in a July 14 interview shortly after Trump’s announcement that neither the House nor the Trump administration reached a consensus on the bill Graham introduced in April.
However, he said the purpose of putting secondary tariffs on countries that indirectly fund Putin’s wars has been spent a long time, and countries like India and China should not be surprised that they are on the job.
A Florida Republican spoke about the threat of Trump’s secondary tariffs. “But the biggest cash cows that Russia has allowed to continue prosecuting this war are the sale of oil and gas.”
Democrats hope Trump will move forward with sanctions
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a top-ranked Democrat on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the former co-sponsor of the Senate bill, told USA Today on July 10 that she saw a “good opportunity” that legislation will take through Congress.
“There’s a threading needle, and on the one hand the President – the President retains his ability to engage in foreign policy negotiations, and on the other hand, on a whim, can crave straight into the bed with his enemies and close the sanctions policies established by Congress,” she said.
Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who sometimes sided with Trump on policy, said the same day he fully supported “the most serious sanctions that could pass here in the Senate.”
The way Russia is attacking Ukraine with drones and killing civilians is “really heartbreaking and terrifying,” the Pennsylvania senator said.
“What the president said has given us the first hope since his election that we can actually deal with the horrific situation around Ukraine,” Fetterman said.
