Trump threatens Russia tariffs if Ukraine war is not resolved within 50 days
'We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days,' Mr Trump said.
He did not provide specifics on how the tariffs would be implemented.
'I use trade for a lot of things,' he added.
'But it's great for settling wars.'
Meanwhile, Mr Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration's policy on the three-year war.
Mr Rutte also planned to hold talks with US defence secretary Pete Hegseth and secretary of state Marco Rubio, as well as members of Congress.
Mr Trump made quickly stopping the war one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has increasingly expressed frustration about Russian president Vladimir Putin's unbudging stance on US-led peace efforts.
Mr Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Mr Putin, and after taking office in January repeatedly said that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.
At the same time, Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of prolonging the war and called him a 'dictator without elections.'
But Russia's relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Mr Trump's patience. In April, Mr Trump urged Mr Putin to 'STOP!' launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader ' has gone absolutely CRAZY!' as the bombardments continued.
'I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said,' Mr Trump said late on Sunday. 'He'll talk so beautifully and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that.'
Mr Zelensky said he and Mr Trump's envoy, retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, had 'a productive conversation' about strengthening Ukrainian air defences, joint arms production and purchasing US weapons in conjunction with European countries, as well as the possibility of tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin.
'We hope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its … ambitions are stopped by force,' Mr Zelensky said on Telegram.
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After Trump won his first term in 2016, his admiration for Putin's strongman image and insistence that the Russian president wasn't such a bad guy set the US on a wholly different course in terms of its willingness to engage with Russia. The start of his second term was characterised by hostility towards Ukraine and its president, Zelenskyy – whom Trump branded a 'dictator' – and a desire to negotiate one-to-one with Putin about a ceasefire and end to the war. Only this month the US briefly halted shipments of arms to Ukraine because it said its own stockpiles were too low. Still, over the past month Trump has been increasingly bewildered at Putin's refusal to give him the peace deal he so desperately needs to make good on his boast that he can end the Ukraine war – even if not in his promised 24 hours. While Ukraine has buckled to US demands such as signing a minerals deal, Putin has given Trump nothing of any substance (apart from, of course, a flattering portrait). Trump's sense of betrayal has only increased as Putin has stepped up his attacks on Ukrainian cities. Putin 'talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening', Trump said at the weekend. Dan said the new arms package that the US has announced for Ukraine was Trump's attempt to claw back some leverage over the Russian leader. While it remains to be seen what difference it can make militarily, this is a diplomatic turning point in relations between the two superpowers. 'For me, the fact that he's agreed in principle to sell weapons to Ukraine is more important than any threat about tariffs,' said Dan. 'Some Ukrainian analysts have been saying that they thought that Putin has overplayed his hand with Trump and I would agree with that.' What does this mean for Ukraine? Dan said that after his public humiliation in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy was quick to act on advice from European leaders to appeal to Donald Trump's ego. 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Dan thought it was significant that Trump brought up his wife, Melania, at the press conference saying that she had been sceptical about their friendly phone calls all along. 'Even if he was just musing aloud it was an acknowledgment that at the heart of his family there has been someone just prodding him out of the idea that Putin was serious about peace.' How could this influence the outcome of the war? Dan said that without a concrete dollar amount in the billions attached to what the US will sell Ukraine's European allies, it is hard to get a firm understanding of just how potentially decisive this military support to Ukraine could be. 'The real question is how much these new US weapons will make a difference to the war and improve Ukraine's ability to fight the kind of war it needs to fight, which is a hard defensive war that will allow it to remain stable and better counter these Russian missile attacks,' said Dan. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Dan said what is clear is that Russia is setting itself up for engaging in a 'forever war' until it achieves its objectives, whatever the cost. 'Russia just hopes to just grind Ukraine down,' said Dan. 'It seems prepared to stomach casualties of more than 1,000 per day and has organised itself around a war economy that could keep going for a long time.' Could the US starting to send 'massive' amounts of weaponry to Ukraine make the Kremlin think again? Dan doesn't think so. 'Militarily at the moment it doesn't appear to be a decisive intervention and my instinct is that Russia isn't going to stop and that Ukrainians have to come to terms with the fact that nothing is going to change any time soon.' 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