Donald Trump changed his tune on Vladimir Putin Wednesday and threatened the Russian president with “very bad” things if he does not agree to a U.S.-proposed peace deal with Ukraine.
Trump, answering questions during an Oval Office sit-down with Ireland’s prime minister, said the U.S. is ready to impose additional financial sanctions on Russia that would be “devastating.”
The president stopped short of saying what exact sanctions he had in mind, as the U.S. already placed significant penalties against its adversary after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“There are things you could do that that wouldn’t be pleasant, in a financial sense,” Trump said. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace. I want to see peace, and we’ll see, but in a financial sense, we could do things very bad for Russia—it would be devastating.”
The warning comes on the heels of Trump’s highly critical meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who he and Vice President JD Vance chastised in the Oval Office and in subsequent social posts for supposedly not being grateful enough for wartime support from the U.S.
That jeering from the Trump Administration was celebrated in Russia and angered supporters of Ukraine in the U.S., including some Republican lawmakers.
Trump softened on Zelensky this weekend when the Ukrainian president committed to a minerals deal that will see Ukraine give the U.S. some of its valuable natural resources like lithium, graphite, magnesium, and titanium. Zelensky has also agreed to a ceasefire deal that was put forward by the Trump Administration and has since been invited back to the same White House he was just kicked out of last month.
Trump’s warning to Putin, although vague, is among the most pointed comments he has ever directed at Moscow. The White House had initially discussed peace deals exclusively with Russia, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio jetting off to Saudi Arabia last month to discuss a potential deal without Zelensky or his advisers there.
Trump’s threat comes a day after Putin, dressed in camouflage, traveled to the Kursk region to visit troops on the frontline near the Ukraine border.
Putin reportedly said Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk, which was recently attacked and partially occupied by Ukrainian forces, will be “treated as terrorists, in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.” He added that Russia will continue fighting there until Ukrainian troops are fully pushed out the region.
