Trump is right to move up his too-generous peace deadline for Putin
On Monday, the prez told reporters he's giving the Kremlin just 10 to 12 more days to agree to a cease-fire — or face real consequences.
'There's no reason to wait' the full 50 days before pummeling Russia with sanctions, potentially including a whopping 100% tariff on countries that import Russian goods, Trump declared.
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He's right. As we've pointed out, his original deadline of Sept. 2 just gave Russia more time to stack up more dead bodies.
Putin's goal was never peace; it is and has always been the total obliteration of Ukraine.
Mad Vlad has openly operated in bad faith, telling the president what he wants to hear in one-on-one calls and then unleashing hell on Ukrainians right after.
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That was exactly Putin's response to Trump's original 50-day deadline: Hours after the threat, Russia hit civilian sites in Ukraine.
The message was clear: You keep giving me more string, and I'll keep stringing you along.
Moscow has played tough, with one top Russian official brushing off Trump's sanctions threat as 'a theatrical ultimatum.'
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But the Kremlin should worry; Russia's economy is a house on wobbly stilts.
Its population is shrinking, inflation is skyrocketing and Putin has poured at least 40% of the national budget into his war machine, even as his people struggle to buy basic goods.
Russia's Minister for Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov is warning that the country is facing a recession.
Meanwhile, China has been propping up Russia since the start of the war, buying hundreds of billions in goods and shipping in products of its own. India, too, imports Russian oil.
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The threat of steep tariffs on these countries could get them to do business elsewhere.
And that could deal a devastating blow to Russia.
It's that logic that has fueled not only Trump's secondary-sanctions threat but a bill by Sen. Lindsey Graham that would slam buyers of Russian oil with a 500% tariff.
Fact is, if Putin has his way, the war won't be over until Ukraine is entirely under his control. And hundreds of thousands more lives are lost.
It's long past time for the West to ratchet up the pressure and make the war too costly for Putin to keep it going.
Trump has no choice but to make the Russian strongman feel some real pain. And now's the time to do it.
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