NEW YORK — U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would meet with European leaders to work on taking action against Russia to end the war in Ukraine, even as he simultaneously argued EU countries were “going to hell” thanks to open migration policies.
“In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs, which would stop the bloodshed I believe very quickly,” he said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Trump then went on to repeat his demand that European countries should stop purchasing Russian oil and gas — something he views as a precondition for the U.S. moving to impose those tariffs against Russia.
“So I’m ready to discuss this,” he continued. “We’re going to discuss it today with the European nations all gathered here. I’m sure they’re thrilled to hear me talk about it. But that’s the way it is.”
EU countries have drastically reduced their reliance on Russian energy since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, but Hungary and Slovakia remain substantial buyers of Russian oil and gas and have so far resisted pressure to stop doing so.
EU officials have spent the past few months trying to convince Trump to come onboard with economic measures against Moscow. Some diplomats have privately voiced skepticism that the U.S. president is serious about moving forward, with one EU official saying last week the American leader was “inventing reasons not to do anything.”
The EU executive branch in Brussels last week tabled its 19th round of sanctions against Russia, taking aim at banks, energy companies and the cryptocurrency sector. Chinese and Indian entities were also included as the EU aims to clamp down on companies that help Moscow evade the sanctions.
In Trump’s address to the U.N. assembly, in which he said that the war was “not making Russia look good,” he also blasted China and India for what he said was being the “primary funders of the ongoing war by continuing to purchase Russian oil.”
But, he added, NATO countries had “inexcusably not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products. Think of it: They’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?”
While the Europeans could take heart from Trump’s high-profile pronouncement on being willing to squeeze Russia, they also took the full brunt of his invective on migration policy.
Trump took aim at European countries which he said were in “serious trouble” due to illegal immigration, reprising a theme from his first term when he called European cities “hell holes.”
“When your prisons are full of asylum seekers who repaid kindness with crime, it is time to end the failed experiment of open borders,” he said. “Your countries are going to hell.”
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