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President Donald Trump said Sunday he was "angry" at Russian President Vladimir Putin and added that the White House would consider more tariffs on Russian oil if he believed Putin was stalling on a peace agreement with Ukraine.
"You could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when Putin said yesterday that - you know, when Putin started getting into [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's credibility, because that's not going in the right location, you understand?" Trump said during a phone interview with NBC's Kristen Welker on Sunday morning.
Trump said he would consider putting secondary tariffs on Russian oil - or penalties on other countries that buy oil from Russia - if he and Putin couldn't come to terms "on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine" and "if I think it was Russia's fault."
"That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can't do business in the United States, there will be a 25 percent tariff on all - on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil," Trump said. He also said he plans to speak to Putin this week.
The comments mark a change from a softer approach toward Russia and its president than Trump took in the first two months of his new administration. White House policy changes have ushered in a world more amenable to Moscow and weakened the alliance opposed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff recently claimed that regions of Ukraine annexed by Moscow after the invasion were part of Russia. And Trump himself has questioned Zelensky's legitimacy.
Trump stressed to Welker that he still has a good relationship with Putin.
In televised remarks Friday, Putin reiterated that he thinks Zelensky lacks legitimacy because his term expired last year. Ukrainians elect presidents for five-year terms - and Zelensky's was to have ended in May 2024. But Ukraine is under martial law because of the Russian invasion.
Putin contended that a peace agreement brokered by Zelensky could be challenged by future governments. Putin also called for new elections that would be supervised by the international community.
On the campaign trail, Trump made ending the conflict between Russia and Ukraine a top foreign policy priority. Last week, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a partial, limited ceasefire during which they would stop attacks on energy infrastructure and allow ships to safely navigate the Black Sea. But Putin's latest remarks seem to suggest he would refuse a deal with the Zelensky-led government, potentially delaying a final agreement and prompting Trump's latest outrage.
Trump himself has attacked Zelensky's credibility using similar arguments, calling him a "dictator without elections" and a "modestly successful comedian" who tricked the West, and particularly President Joe Biden, into financing Ukraine's war against Russia.
"He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden 'like a fiddle,'" Trump said in a Truth Social post in February, a week before a disastrous Oval Office meeting between the two leaders.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Sunday that he told Trump he should set a deadline for a ceasefire. "April 20 would be a good time for a full ceasefire without any conditions," Stubb told Finnish reporters in London, according to Reuters. Stubb had met Trump in Florida for golf on Saturday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also spoke with Trump over the weekend. "The leaders agreed on the need to keep up the collective pressure on Putin," according to a readout from Starmer's office.
During Sunday's NBC interview, Trump said that he was also considering putting secondary tariffs on Iran, and that "there will be bombing" if the country doesn't make a peace deal. Iran's president said during a televised cabinet meeting Sunday that his country rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, the Associated Press reported.
"We don't avoid talks; it's the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far," President Masoud Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting, according to the AP.
On Saturday evening, Trump held a separate phone interview with NBC, where he doubled down on his plans to institute additional 25 percent tariffs on autos and auto imports this week, saying he "couldn't care less" if automakers raised prices as a result.
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