Trump threatens Putin with tariffs for Russia unless Ukraine war ends – live | Trump administration
Trump threatens tariffs on Russia and allies unless they end war in Ukraine
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump has threatened to impose “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on Russia and its allies if it does not stop its invasion of Ukraine.
The post comes after Trump failed to achieve his campaign promise of ending the war in the country within 24 hours of taking office. Here’s what the president wrote:
I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin – and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. 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. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!
Key events
Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginia barraged Pete Hegseth with questions about his personal life and alleged misconduct at his confirmation hearing last week.
Kaine had this to say about the latest allegations about the defense secretary nominee, in an interview with CNN:
It’s completely consistent with other material that the committee had available to us and other witnesses who have come forward who have shared their own experiences – their direct knowledge of this situation – with committee members. Now, many of them have been too afraid to go public, but Danielle Hegseth, who I did not know, not met, or not talked to her until I saw this affidavit yesterday. Her account is very consistent with other accounts we’re hearing. And that’s why we are encouraging our colleagues don’t rush on this one. We think this latest confirmation of erratic and irresponsible behavior by Pete Hegseth would make him very, very dangerous as the Secretary of Defense, and we need to get to the bottom of these allegations before we try to rush a confirmation vote.
Democratic senator reveals details of new abuse allegations against Pete Hegseth
Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate committee considering Pete Hegseth’s appointment to lead the defense department, has released details of alleged abuse by the former Fox News host towards his second wife.
In a statement, Reed, the ranking member on the Senate armed services committee, said he had received an affidavit from an unspecified individual detailing Hegseth’s behavior in his second marriage. Media outlets have earlier reported that the individual is Hegseth’s former sister-in-law.
“As I have said for months, the reports of Mr Hegseth’s history of alleged sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and public misconduct necessitate an exhaustive background investigation. I have been concerned that the background check process has been inadequate, and this affidavit confirms that fact,” Reed said in a statement.
Here are the details of Hegseth’s alleged behavior, from Reed:
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Mr Hegseth abused alcohol regularly and his volatile behavior caused family members to fear for their safety.
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Mr Hegseth’s second spouse had an ‘escape plan’ that involved texting a ‘safe word’ to friends and family to urgently request assistance without putting herself in more danger with Mr Hegseth. This escape plan was executed on at least one occasion.
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On at least one occasion, Mr Hegseth’s second spouse hid in her closet out of fear of him.
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While drunk in his military uniform – a violation of military laws – Mr Hegseth was so inebriated that his brother had to carry him out of a Minneapolis strip club. This occurred during a drill weekend with the Minnesota national guard.
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Mr Hegseth regularly became so drunk that he passed out, threw up, and had to be carried out of family events and public settings, sometimes shouting sexually and racially offensive statements.
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Mr Hegseth said that women should not vote or work, and that Christians needed to have more children so they could overtake the Muslim population.
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Several other accounts of abusive behavior and public drunkenness.
Here’s more on the new allegations against the defense secretary nominee, who currently appears on track to be confirmed by the Senate:
Yesterday, Donald Trump announced a big infrastructure project to build data centers for AI technology.
Now, two billionaires are fighting about it on X. You won’t be surprised to learn that one of the two combatants is the billionaire megastar and apparent Trump White House official, Elon Musk. Responding to a tweet announcing the infrastructure project from OpenAI, Musk wrote:
They don’t actually have the money
And:
SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a fellow billionaire who is nonetheless worth much less than Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote back:
wrong, as you surely know.
want to come visit the first site already under way?
this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put [america] first.
Here’s more about the project at the heart of the squabble:
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson earlier in the day downplayed Donald Trump’s blanket pardons for January 6 rioters, and said, “We’re not looking backward, we’re looking forward.”
But the speaker did not hesitate to glance in the rearview mirror when asked to comment on Joe Biden’s pardons, in his final minutes as president, to members of his own family.
“It was shocking what President Biden did on the way out, pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any non-violent offenses. It was breathtaking to us. I don’t think that’s anything like that’s ever been anticipated,” Johnson said.
“It probably proves the point, the suspicion that, you know, they call it the Biden crime family, if they weren’t the crime family, why do they need pardons?” The House will investigate the decision, he said.
What do Ukrainians think of Donald Trump’s claims that he can swiftly bring peace to their country? The Guardian’s Luke Harding asked around Kyiv to find out:
People in Kyiv expressed a mixture of hope and scepticism on Tuesday that Donald Trump can end the war in Ukraine, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the US president as a “decisive” leader who would bring about a “just peace”.
Trump described himself as a “peacekeeper” who would avoid entangling the US in damaging foreign wars in his inauguration speech, but did not mention Ukraine, or explain how he might persuade Vladimir Putin to engage in negotiations almost three years after his full-scale invasion.
Speaking later to reporters in the White House, Trump claimed 1 million Russian soldiers had died in the war and suggested that it was in the interests of both sides to stop fighting. “He [Putin] is destroying Russia. He should make a deal. Zelenskyy wants to make a deal,” Trump said.
Ukrainians outside Lukianivska metro station in Kyiv the next morning – where a Russian missile killed three people on Saturday – said they were anxiously waiting to see what happened next. Behind them was the wrecked facade of an office building and a damaged branch of McDonald’s, the first in the Ukrainian capital.
“I think a deal is unrealistic. Trump is blah blah blah,” Valeriia, a 23-year-old shop worker, said. “He promised to end the conflict in 24 hours. That won’t happen. My friends are split 50-50 between those who think he can do something, and those who don’t.”
Trump threatens tariffs on Russia and allies unless they end war in Ukraine
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump has threatened to impose “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on Russia and its allies if it does not stop its invasion of Ukraine.
The post comes after Trump failed to achieve his campaign promise of ending the war in the country within 24 hours of taking office. Here’s what the president wrote:
I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin – and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. 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. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!
Donald Trump’s blanket pardons for January 6 rioters have put congressional Republicans in a somewhat uncomfortable spot.
The president freed from jail and dropped charges against both violent and nonviolent rioters, a decision that does not quite square with the GOP’s stated fidelity to “law and order” policies. House speaker Mike Johnson was asked for his thoughts on the pardons at the Capitol today. Here’s what he said, from NBC News:
Everybody can describe this however they want. The president has the pardon and commutation authority. It’s his decision. I think what was made clear all along was that peaceful protests and the people who engage in that should never be punished. There was a weaponization of the Justice Department. There was a weaponization of the events — the prosecutions that happened after January 6. It was a terrible time and a terrible chapter in America’s history. The president’s made his decision. I don’t second-guess those. And yes, it’s kind of my ethos, my world view, we believe in redemption; we believe in second chances … We’re not looking backward, we’re looking forward.
Trump to sit for Oval Office interview with conservative commentator Sean Hannity
Donald Trump’s first sit-down interview since being inaugurated president will be with conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, the network announced.
The (undoubtedly friendly) interview will air at 9pm today, and take place in the Oval Office.
Trump executive order leaves refugees cleared to enter US stranded globally
Among the many executive orders Donald Trump signed on Monday was one that has prevented refugees who have been cleared to resettle in the United States from reaching the country, the Associated Press reports.
It’s a situation not unlike what played out at the start of his first term, when he signed a similar executive order to stop refugees from coming into the US. Here’s more on the latest move, from the AP:
Refugees who had been approved to travel to the United States before a Jan. 27 deadline suspending America’s refugee resettlement program have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration.
Thousands of refugees are now stranded at various locations around the globe.
The suspension was in an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday. It left open the possibility that people who had undergone the lengthy process to be approved as refugees and permitted to come to the U.S., and had flights booked before that deadline, might still be able to get in under the wire.
But in an email reviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press, the U.S. agency overseeing refugee processing and arrival told staff and stakeholders that “refugee arrival to the United States have been suspended until further notice.”
Among those affected are the more than 1,600 Afghans cleared to resettle in the U.S. as part of the program that the Biden administration set up after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. That number includes those who worked alongside American soldiers during the war as well as family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel.
Trump’s order had given the agency until Jan. 27 before it began to halt all processing and traveling. Now, however, it appears the timing in the order was moved up. It was not immediately clear what prompted the change.
A new poll finds that increasing border security and deporting undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes are relatively popular proposals with Americans.
But Donald Trump’s hardline approaches to immigration more broadly – including ending birthright citizenship and deporting all undocumented immigrants, even those who have not interacted with the criminal justice system – are more divisive, the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found.
What it found about border security:
Half of U.S. adults think increasing security at the border should be a high priority for the federal government, according to the poll, and about 3 in 10 say it should be a moderate priority. Just 2 in 10, roughly, consider it a low priority.
The vast majority of U.S. adults favor deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes, and the Trump administration’s deportation efforts may begin there. But Trump’s initial executive orders have gone far beyond that — including efforts to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico and end automatic citizenship.
And Trump, a Republican, is continuing to signal an aggressive and likely divisive approach, with promises to deport millions of people who entered the country illegally while declaring a “national emergency at our southern border.” About 4 in 10 American adults support deporting all immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and a similar share are opposed.
And about Trump’s more extreme actions:
Removing immigrants who are in the country illegally and have not committed a violent crime is highly divisive, with only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults in support and slightly more than 4 in 10 opposed.
And relatively few Americans, about 3 in 10, somewhat or strongly favor changing the Constitution so children born in the U.S. are not automatically granted citizenship if their parents are in the country illegally. About 2 in 10 are neutral, and about half are somewhat or strongly opposed.
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The poll finds that a shift toward arresting people in the country illegally at places like churches and schools would be highly unpopular. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults somewhat or strongly favor arresting children who are in the country illegally while they are at school, and a similar share support arresting people who are in the country illegally while they are at church. Solid majorities, about 6 in 10, oppose these kinds of arrests.
Even Republicans aren’t fully on board — less than half favor arrests of children in schools or people at church.
