Trump says tariffs to end the Ukraine war never occurred to him. He threatened Russia with them in 2025

Somewhere in Fort Myers a light bulb went on over the president’s head. It is the same light bulb from January 2025.

Running through his greatest hits, Trump said tariffs “helped us end eight wars,” because he told the fighting countries “we’re going to put a 200 percent tariff on you, both of you.” Those are his claims. Then the idea arrived: “Probably should do that immediately with Ukraine and Russia.” He added that he “never thought of it,” before talking himself out of it again on the grounds that “we don’t buy enough to do it for them.”

He had thought of it. On 22 January 2025 he posted that if Putin didn’t make a deal he’d put “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on anything Russia sells to the United States, Reuters reported. In July 2025 he gave Moscow 50 days before “very severe” secondary tariffs of about 100%. In August 2025 he signed an executive order slapping an extra 25% on India for buying Russian oil.

So the policy he never thought of has a Truth Social post, a deadline and an executive order number: 14329. The war is still going.