Donald Trump’s frustration with Russia boils over

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Donald Trump’s bubbling frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin boiled over into explicit threats yesterday.

The US president said he’d hit Russia with sweeping, “severe” tariffs if there is no deal to end the war in Ukraine in 50 days. And this morning the FT reported that Trump privately encouraged Kyiv to step up its strikes deep inside Russia on a July 4 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [free to read].

While hosting Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said: “We are very unhappy — I am — with Russia,” adding that he had thought they were close to an agreement at least four separate times. “I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago.

“My conversations with him are always very pleasant” but then “the missiles go off at night”, Trump said.

“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent, you’d call them secondary tariffs,” Trump said.

A White House official also said the US was ready to use “severe sanctions and tariffs” against Moscow.

Since Washington is at the heart of the world’s financial system it can cut people and countries off from the international economy with sanctions. Secondary tariffs or sanctions would increase the pressure on Moscow by punishing third-party entities, industries or countries that do business with Russia.

To top it off, Trump and Rutte confirmed a multiphase deal to keep sending weapons, including Patriot missile systems, to Ukraine. 

The president said “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment” would be purchased from the US by Nato allies to “be quickly distributed to the battlefield” in Ukraine. Rutte added that Nato allies could also give weapons they already have to Ukraine that the US would then backfill.

Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada all hope to be part of the weapons deal, according to Rutte.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in Washington yesterday that he was confident the US would agree to a request from Berlin to buy two Patriot air defence systems for Kyiv.

“We’ve been very successful in settling wars” with trade, Trump claimed.

Before you read on, a programming note: I will be handing over the White House Watch reins from today. Thank you so much for joining me on this wild political journey since we launched the newsletter in February 2024. It’s been a great privilege to write about the presidential election, transition and first six months of the second Trump administration for you — I am so grateful for each one of White House Watch’s readers. The good news is that you’ll still see my reporting in the newsletter and you’ll be in great hands.

I’ll let Stephanie Stacey take it from here.

The latest headlines

What we’re hearing

Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick was one of just two Republican members of Congress to vote against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”. 

The other, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, was savaged by Trump, who threatened to back a primary challenge against him. Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, managed to avoid any real blowback.

Political veterans say Fitzpatrick — unlike Massie — is getting a free pass because Republican leaders see him as uniquely suited to hang on to one of the most competitive districts in the country.

He is now just one of three House Republicans representing an area where more voters cast ballots for Kamala Harris than Trump last November.

“That seat could easily flip,” said Charlie Dent, a former Republican congressman from the neighbouring Lehigh Valley. “And if Brian Fitzpatrick is not the nominee in that seat in 2026, then it will become a Democratic seat.”

Reactions were mixed in Doylestown, the leafy suburb of Philadelphia that Fitzpatrick represents. Patricia, who works in a local school and declined to share her surname, said she had called the congressman’s office to thank him for doing “the morally right thing”.

But he was also facing criticism. “I think he votes right in the middle and for selfish reasons, just to keep himself in office,” said Pat Ruscio, a Trump supporter from Doylestown.

“He has got this very moderate, bipartisan credit, which he champions every chance he gets, but . . . when it is critical, when it requires real, true spine and courage, we don’t see that behaviour,” said Laura Rose, a leader of local progressive group Indivisible Bucks County.

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