US President Donald Trump has turned his tariff-imposing tirade toward China in a bid to stop the “deadly, but ridiculous war” between Russia and Ukraine, which he said would never have started if he had been President of the US in 2022, when Russia attacked Kyiv.
In a social media post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump called on NATO countries to impose 50-100 per cent tariffs on China to stop Beijing from buying crude oil from Russia so that Moscow could be pressured into ending the war.
In his post, Trump said he is ready to impose “major sanctions” on Russia when all NATO countries agree and start to do the same thing and stop buying oil from Moscow.
Trump said that he is ready to “go ahead” when the NATO countries are.
Also Read: US asks G7 group to impose tariffs on Russian oil-buyers
His post on Truth Social comes a day after the US asked G7 countries to impose tariffs on countries purchasing oil from Russia, particularly India and China.
The US president also said NATO’s commitment to win has been “far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian oil, by some, has been shocking!”
“It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” he said.
The president also said the Ukraine war is “not his conflict”, and that it is “Biden and Zelenskyy’s war” which would never have started if he had been president then.
“It is Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s war. I am only here to help stop it, and save thousands of Russian and Ukrainian lives…If NATO does as I say, the war will end quickly, and all of those lives will be saved! If not, you are just wasting my time, and the time, energy, and money of the United States,” he said.
The president said that tariffs of 50 per cent to 100 per cent on China will be of “great help in ending this deadly, but ridiculous war”.
“China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful tariffs will break that grip,” he said.
The US has imposed an additional 30 per cent tax on imports from China, while Beijing has responded with a 10 per cent tax on imports from Washington. At one point, trade ties between the two countries had deteriorated so much that Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 per cent. It was only in May this year that the two giant economies agreed to end the tit-for-tat tariff war.
On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the United States Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer were on a call with G7 finance ministers when they reiterated President Trump's call to the bloc's partners about imposing tariffs on countries purchasing oil from Russia.
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