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President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. will “just take a pass” at peace efforts for Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to agree to ceasefire terms.
“If for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say ‘you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people,’ and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump told reporters. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
The president’s comments echoed those made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio early Friday morning following a meeting in Paris with special envoy Steve Witkoff and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as officials from Ukraine, Germany and the U.K. — the first meeting of its kind, which signaled greater European involvement in U.S. efforts to secure a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.
Last month, during an interview with NBC News, Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Putin first showed signs of being unwilling to engage in a ceasefire with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“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,” he said.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States,” he added. “There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil.”
Trump would not comment on the “specific number of days” Russia has before he determines whether it’s serious about ending the war, but he told reporters on Friday it needs to happen “quickly — we want to get it done.”