Trump says he’s willing to use economic pressure on Russia to end Ukraine war

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Let's turn now to Nick Schifrin on the foreign policy aspects of the president's Davos discussion.

  Nick, good to see you.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Thanks, Amna.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So we have been talking about this. The president hit on a lot of different points, a lot of different regions. Specifically, on Ukraine, what did he have to say?

• Nick Schifrin:

  Senior administration officials have told me that Ukraine is one of, if not the top priority for this administration.

  And President Trump has consistently said that his priority is to end the war and what he called the killing fields of Ukraine.

• Donald Trump:

  I have seen pictures of what's taking place. It's a carnage, and we really have to stop that war. That war is horrible. And I'm not talking economy. I'm not talking economics. I'm not talking about natural resources.

  I'm just talking about there's so many young people being killed in this war.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Now, today, as Lisa noted, he said that Zelenskyy was ready to make a deal, but it wasn't clear whether Putin was and that he wanted to see Putin — quote — "immediately."

  So, how do you get Russia to agree to a deal? It has become increasingly clear that Ukraine on the battlefield cannot put enough pressure on the Russian military to create pressure on Putin. Senior Trump officials tell me that they believe it's more effective to pressure Putin economically or via China.

  And for the first time last night, we saw that Trump himself said he was willing to use economic pressure. He wrote on TRUTH Social — quote — "If we don't make a deal, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries."

  Now, Russia doesn't sell very much to the U.S. anymore, Amna. But the bottom line is, he is threatening or appears to be threatening the Russian economy. And the best way to do that is to attack the lifeblood of the Russian economy, and that is oil exports. The Biden administration only used that tool at the end because they were worried about raising gas prices.

  There is a lot of room for sanctions on Russian oil to expand. And Trump also said, as we have been talking about with David Wessel, that he wanted to see increased production of oil to lower prices, and that would reduce the revenue that Russia could use to fight in Ukraine.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Even if he can get to a cease-fire, previous cease-fires between Ukraine and Russia have been broken. How does the Trump team overcome that history?

• Nick Schifrin:

  As part of any negotiation, Trump officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, have said that Ukraine needs a security guarantee moving forward politically, so that President Zelenskyy can actually sell any kind of deal to his people, but also to deter Russia from launching another war in the future.

  Now, what does that mean? That means some kind of long-term security assistance, actual weapons, presumably coming from the United States to Ukraine, but it also includes troops inside Ukraine to actually enforce any kind of cease-fire detail.

  And a senior official who's been working on Ukraine confirms to me that the Trump administration and European governments have been talking about sending European troops into Ukraine to try and enforce a cease-fire. They would not be NATO troops. They would be individual European troops to do that.

  Now, that's a long way from now, and there's a lot of doubt that Putin will accept any offer on the table, whether or not from Trump or Ukraine at all. Just today, we heard from Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying — quote — "We remain ready for mutually respectful dialogue. This dialogue was maintained between the two presidents during Trump's first presidency. We are waiting for signals which have not come yet."

  So, Russia saying something, but clearly not playing their hand as to whether they're really ready for peace yet.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Waiting for signals. We will see.

  Nick Schifrin, thank you very much.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Thank you.