U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on March 31 to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil exports if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not "make a deal" to end the war in Ukraine.
"I want to see (Putin) make a deal, so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will. I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil. But I think, you know, it’s something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job."
Trump's comments on Russia come just a day after Trump told NBC News that he was "pissed off" and "very angry" regarding Putin's fixation over the Russian president's latest demand for a transitional government that would replace President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump previously threatened to impose additional tariffs against Russia, threatening a "25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil."
U.S. and Russian trade is at an all-time low due to sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other Western allies due to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. The Trump administration has been expanding diplomacy with Moscow, however, and has said it is open to exploring a trade partnership.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on March 31 that Trump has "expressed displeasure" with both Russian and Ukrainian leaders amid efforts to secure a ceasefire in the full-scale war.
During his press conference in the Oval Office, Trump also expressed frustration with ongoing efforts to reach a minerals deal with Ukrainian officials.
"I haven’t spoken to (Ukrainian officials) yet, but through you, I heard that they now say, ‘Well, I’ll only do that deal if we get into NATO or something to that effect. Well, that was never, number one, discussed. Number two, I think it’s going to be very — long before Putin, they said you’re not going into NATO," Trump told reporters.
“That’s probably the reason the war started, actually,” Trump said, repeating Kremlin narratives that justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On March 31, a source in Ukraine's Presidential Office told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine's NATO membership is not a part of the discussion around the minerals deal.
"We are not tying (the minerals deal to NATO), it's a misunderstanding," the source said.
Abbey Fenbert
(Updated: )
