President Donald Trump’s relentless use of tariffs to coerce foreign counterparts into favorable deals is about to run headlong into the limits of geopolitical reality.
Trump’s willingness to dramatically escalate the long-running US economic warfare in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine is real, advisors say. His threat to accelerate sweeping tariffs on India is certain to come to fruition, they insist. But he also faces the backdrop of a looming deadline to extend a trade truce with the world’s second-largest economy that requires a degree of caution as White House deliberations come to a head.
“He’s pissed,” one person close to Trump said of his rapidly deteriorating view of Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks. “But he’s also aware of the competing priorities here.”
Trump faces a unique challenge balancing all of his simultaneous demands: He is threatening punishing sanctions on the Russian energy production that serves as the financial linchpin of Putin’s war machine at the same moment he is seeking leverage in trade talks with India while maintaining a fragile trade détente with China.
The convergence of conflicting priorities have driven intensive discussions inside the West Wing about the range and scope of the options Trump could trigger as soon as today – and put a significant amount of weight on the meeting between Putin and Steve Witkoff, his trusted foreign envoy, underway in Moscow.
