President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin for jeopardizing ongoing peace talks to end the war with Ukraine.
Trump told NBC News that he was upset with Putin for questioning Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “credibility,” saying that would hurt negotiations between the two warring nations. The president also said that he might implement secondary tariffs on Russian oil if he thinks Putin causes a deal to stop the war to fall through.
“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 said. “That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States.”
He added that he was “very angry, pissed off, when Putin started getting into Zelensky’s credibility and started talking about new leadership in Ukraine.”
Trump later told reporters on Air Force One that he was upset because Putin was supposed to be negotiating with Zelensky, not undercutting him.
“I was disappointed in a certain way some of the things that were said over the last day or two having to do with Zelensky,” Trump said. “He considers Zelensky not credible, he’s supposed to be making a deal with him whether you like him, you don’t like him. So I wasn’t happy with that. But I think he’s going to be good.”
Trump added that he didn’t want to impose tariffs on Russia and that there was “tremendous hatred” between Putin and Zelensky. He said the main goal was to stop people from dying, saying that progress was being made “step by step.”
The president also had harsh words for Zelensky, who he warned not to try to negotiate the mineral deal made between America and Ukraine.
“I think Zelensky, by the way, he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, and if he does that, he’s got some problems – big, big problems,” Trump said Sunday night. “We made a deal on rare earths, and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’ He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that, so, if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems.”
Trump is expected to speak with Putin on the phone later this week.
