Trump Says He Is ‘Very Angry’ and ‘Pissed Off’ at Putin Over Ukraine
Donald Trump played the strongman in a Saturday interview. The president said he is growing increasingly frustrated with Russia and its refusal to sign a Ukraine ceasefire agreement as well as with Iran for not reaching a nuclear deal with the U.S.
Trump said he is “very angry” and “pissed off” at President Vladimir Putin — so much so he is considering imposing tariffs if Putin does not agree to a deal that would end the war. This could represent a shift in the president’s relationship with Putin which previously had been one of adoration. As recently as last month, Trump bashed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a social media post, calling him a “dictator” and threatening that if he doesn’t agree to a peace deal, “he is not going to have a Country left.”
But this weekend, Trump turned his anger toward Putin after Putin demanded the U.S. lift sanctions Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial institutions. “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be— but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia,” he told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a phone call on Saturday.
The president added, “That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all – on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil.”
Russia and Ukraine peace negotiations took place last week over three days in Saudi Arabia. Trump told Welker he became “very angry” and “pissed off” when Putin attacked Zelensky’s credibility and discussed new leadership for Ukraine. Putin on Friday called for the installation of a “transitional administration” in Ukraine and promised the Russian army would “finish off” Ukraine’s armed forces.
While speaking in a sidebar at an Atlantic forum, Putin said the purpose of a transitional government would be “to organize a democratic presidential election that would result in the coming to power of a competent government that would have the confidence of the people, and then begin negotiations with these authorities on a peace agreement and sign legitimate documents.”
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Trump said he plans to talk to Putin this week. But former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell questioned whether the deal would be good for the U.S.
“Unless we change course, the outcome we’re headed for today is the one we can least afford: a headline that reads ‘Russia wins, America loses,’” he said on Thursday at a pro-Ukraine event.
Discussing the peace negotiations, Zelensky said that Putin is “not ready for direct talks.”
“I’ve never been afraid; it’s just Putin wanting war. What can a man who wants war say at peace talks?” Zelensky said.
Putin isn’t the only one at risk of drawing the president’s ire. Trump said he is eyeing tariffs for Iran if they won’t agree to a nuclear deal: “If they don’t make a deal there will be bombing. And it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
Trump added, “But there’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
During Trump’s first term, he withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the Barack Obama administration. That deal imposed strict limitations on the country’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. It also required Iran to dismantle large portions of its nuclear program and allow inspections.
In a strange reversal, Trump last month expanded sanctions on Iran and said he hoped to reach a nuclear deal. But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in response, “The maximum pressure [policy] is a failed experience, and trying it again will lead to another failure,” according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
Trump last week said that “bad things” will happen to Iran if it doesn’t reach a nuclear agreement with the U.S., but his Saturday remarks are the most specific and threatening comments he has made toward the country.