President Donald Trump is preparing to announce new secondary rates on Friday on countries that trade with Russia in the midst of his deadly war in Ukraine.
The White House has been left tightly on what those rates will look like after the president said for the first time in July that they would amount to “100%” rates before he would cause confusion earlier this week when he told reporters that he “never said a percentage.”
Although the details of which tax countries who act with Russia can be confronted remain unclear, the change of Trump in attitude towards Russian President Vladimir Putin has become increasingly clear.
President Donald Trump, right, meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the G20 top in Osaka, Japan, 28 June 2019. (Kremlin Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty images)
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“Putin does not want to make Trump angry,” he added. “Putin was never worried about making bides angry, and I think this shows a certain degree of respect.
“It shows what Trump has achieved by practicing leadership on the worldwide stage. And we will see what happens,” Fleitz said, adding that he hoped that it was not just a stuck tactic of Putin.
The return from Trump to the White House brought a feeling of shock when he seemed to take Washington from his top union in Europe in favor of an attempt to improve diplomatic relations with Putin, culminating in the infamous Oval Office confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
While the struggle received renewed support from his Top Maga -Basis, who prefer the US involvement in foreign wars, it led to concern among security experts. Eventually Trump’s patience began to shift with Putin, consistently expressed his frustration about the constant brutal attacks of the Kremlin Chief in Ukraine.
In mid-July, while he was sitting next to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump announced that Putin had 50 days to go into a ceasefire or to face “very serious” rates that would affect the top of Moscow, oil.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy meet in the Oval Office of the White House 28 February 2025 in Washington, DC (Andrew Harnik/Getty images)
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“Rates at about 100%, you would call them secondary rates,” he had said, indicating that countries who act with Russia will see 100% rates at them while trading with the US
This would influence China and India the most considerably Data released by the US government Thursday, which showed that both countries are good for 46% of all Russian oil purchases in 2025.
But the US is also the number 1 export market for both China and India, which means that higher price tags on the cash register will think that Americans think twice before completing those purchases.
After continuous trade negotiations with both countries and Putin’s constant war effort in Ukraine, Trump pushed his deadline last week until within 10 days of July 29, forcing a new deadline from Friday.
But while his promised rates were received by some in the Gop applause, including Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C. – He, together with senator Richard Blumenthal, DN.Y., he stimulates the indictment of 500% sanctions against Russia – other Republican members have not supported the move.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Is pronounced against not only Trump’s rates, but also the two-part sanction and this week argued to Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow that Trump’s rates on desk and enemies will be up to $ 2 trillion of taxes for American consumers.
But Fleitz pushed back on this argument and said that he is not convinced that the rates will harm the US or the Chinese economy, although Russia and India will probably feel the pain.
“I think they will harm the Russian and Indian economies,” he said, and noticed that India could recover by buying oil elsewhere. Although some reporting has suggested that India has possible more than $ 30 billion saved By increasingly turning Russian oil in 2022-2024 because of the price reductions of Moscow.
President Donald Trump shows a signed Executive Order that imposes rates for imported goods during a “Make America Wealthy Again” statement event in the Rozentuin of the White House on 2 April 2025. (Getty Images/Andrew Harnik)
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“It will be another factor that Putin will put pressure on to agree to a cease -the fire. I don’t know if that will happen immediately or in a few months, but I think it will exert real pressure, spend real pain on Russia,” Fleitz said.
Once a faithful Trump all-fellow, rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., took to x This week in response to a function of Trump that he would force the rates on India for the purchase of Russian oil and said: “Put an end to the Indian H1-B-Visa that, instead, replaces American jobs and stops financing and sending weapons to Obama/Biden/Neocon Russian war.”
Trump’s favorable transition to Ukraine and European allies has that too Transported a few Maga springsAlthough security experts have claimed that it has given the president better leverage to hire great opponents such as Putin, and by extension, China.
President Donald Trump, Right, and Mark Rutte, NATO -Secretary -General, Shake Hand during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, July 14, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty images)
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“Diplomacy and negotiations are a good thing,” says Fleitz, who acts as vice chairman of the Center for American Security of the America First Policy Institute. “Peacemaking takes time, and the relationship between the US and Russia was in a very bad situation when Trump came to the office.
“I think these sanctions will harm Russia very much,” Fleitz continued. “The fact that Trump knows that secondary sanctions on India, at least temporarily, has hurt our relationship, is really a remarkable sign of how dedicated Trump is for these sanctions.
“There will be no exceptions. It will not be a sort of soft strategy with all kinds of meshes,” he added. “I think it shows that Putin is how serious Trump is, and it gives Trump lever to negotiate with Putin.”
