2 mins read
In a post to his Truth Social site on Wednesday, Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war.”
He said he had no desire to hurt Russia — which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in World War II — and has a good relationship with Putin, but warned of the penalties if the war isn’t stopped soon.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
Trump has been skeptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other materiel to defend itself. He has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.
The problem with the threat is that other than a small amount of fertilizer, animal feed, inorganic material like tin, and machinery, Russia currently exports very little to the U.S. that could be subject to tariffs. Oil had been Russia’s largest export to the U.S., but such trade was zeroed out in 2023.
The U.S. imported a total of $2.8 billion worth of these products from Russia in 2024, a tiny fraction of U.S. imports and a precipitous drop from 2023, when it was $4.5 billion, and 2022, when it was $14.4 billion, according to U.S. government statistics.
And, Russia is already one of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations. Many of those sanctions relate to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and were imposed under President Joe Biden, but others predate Biden. Some were imposed during Trump’s first term in office, and some date back to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
In addition, “other participating countries” such as Iran and North Korea, the two most often accused of helping Russia in the Ukraine war, are subject to even more U.S. sanctions.
8 mins read
With U.S.-Russian relations at their most strained since the Cold War, reducing the risk of direct military confrontation and stabilizing global security, the United States must balance firm deterrence with strategic diplomacy to turn a bitter rivalry into competitive coexistence.
5 mins read
OFAC has targeted Russia’s major oil companies and insurers as well as over 180 tankers in the shadow fleet. But will it make a difference?
12 mins read
The recent U.S. presidential election illuminates the fragility of American democracy. Decades of political and social polarization have produced a highly unsettled American electorate with a deep distrust in democratic institutions. Political and social divides, compounded by economic inequality and entrenched partisan warfare, have catalyzed the emergence of authoritarian-leaning voters and enabled more extreme ideological factions within both parties, with the Trumpist faction in the Republican Party as the most radicalized one.
