President Donald Trump said he wants to see Russian President Vladimir Putin “make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, again stating that he would impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil, if necessary.
“I want to see him make a deal, so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed,” Trump said in the Oval Office today. “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. I did it with Venezuela.”
Over the weekend, Trump told NBC: “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 oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.”
Trump also reiterated his frustration with Ukraine over reaching a rare earth mineral deal.
“We made a deal for rare earth. It was all done. And I heard through you,” Trump said, referring to the press. “I haven’t spoken to them 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.”
“That’s probably the reason the war started, actually,” Trump added.
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