Russia is a huge military power and Ukraine has been overwhelmed from the beginning. Nevertheless, this is Day 1220 of the 3-Day war. I am not giving Vlad any military genius awards just yet.
President Donald Trump just joined the warmongers. Not that it matters. What weapons the US and NATO gives to Ukraine will be targeted by the Russians. Russians have started going after the supply chain of NATO weapons to Ukraine. That is why they are attacking Lviv because it is a transit point for US and NATO weapons. As for 100% tariffs, Russia has very little trade with the US. Like $20 billion on goods the US needs. I see Russia just refusing to export goods to the US. Problem solved. Take note, over 20,000 sanctions have been imposed by the US and NATO on Russia but, the war continues. Russia will continue to thrive economically and ramp up its military production of missiles, drones, rockets, glide bombs, etc. Ukraine will be thoroughly destroyed as it continues to fight this losing war. US might prolong the war a bit longer at the expense of Ukrainian soldiers lives. And I thought Trump was concerned about the lives lost?
Thou dost need to more closely examine how the proposed tariffs would work. It is not just about direct trade between Russia and the US which you correctly point out is limited. Nope. If implemented- and I am not saying we will end out there- it would be vastly more than that. It is designed to penalize/crimp trade between Russia and its major traders. Putin will play Trump for a couple more rounds because Trump is a chump when it comes to Putin. Just sayin, the tariff plan needs to be properly understood so that we know what's on the table. "Secondary" is the operative word. A deal between Nato and Russia: The US president says he'll enforce 100% secondary tariffs on Russia if there's no deal between Russia and Ukraine in 50 days This means any country that continues to do trade with Russia will face a big tax to sell their products to the US, business reporter Dearbail Johnson explains https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c36xrr9kj11t
This is problematic due to BRICS to which China and India are founding members. Add to that, the fact that sanctions on China and India would have retaliatory tariffs on the US products as well. US still highly dependent on China for a lot of its imports. China's retaliation on the last trade war resulted in China refusing to buy soybeans, corn and other farm products. A lot of US farmers are going bankrupt because of the sudden collapse of the soybean and corn markets. Apple has moved its operations from China to avoid high tariffs to India. China has not resumed buying US farm products and at some point, tariffs imposed just to inflict pain on another country is not sustainable. This will hasten the move to remove the reserve currency status of the US dollar as more countries avoid the US dollar. Exactly, the thing President Trump fears. China and India are not going to stop buying cheap Russian oil as well as Europe thru China and India as middlemen. Militarily, the US has driven Iran, Russia, China and North Korea tighter and you have to assume sharing of advanced military technology. US and NATO will be at a huge disadvantage in the event of World War 3.
Don't worry about it. 50 days is plenty of time for Putin to play Trump. Putin will agree to some deal and leave Trump with what he wants. ie to walk away looking like Mr. DealMaker. Meanwhile the deal will not stand in the way of Vlad's objectives. It is the clash of two different minds. One is the mind of a dealmaker. The other is the mind of a KGB agent. By nature and background, the KGB agent properly assesses the mind and goals of his opponent. The dealmaker. Not so much. Has not even come close to assessing Putin's mindset. He still thinks he is just having a spat with his love buddy. But he is being played like a chump. We were always just one love letter to end all love letters away from peace a new beginning with Kim in North Korea. Kim played him like a chump too. They know Trump has a transactional mind so they feed him the quick. transaction he needs and gets all peppy. Does not change the trajectory of what they are up to one bit. I guess in fairness I should point out that Trump did not let the Iranians do that to him recently or in he past. It is all a matter of who he has defined as his love buddy and is able to talk love buddy back to him. The Iranians are too sour and dour to do that. The Europeans are showing him love now to great effect so that is something that Putin needs to worry about.
Trump stating that a bill is not needed to put sanctions on Russia. That's because he wants to let Vlad out of it as soon as they are kissy-faced again and he does not want to bound by congressional/senate action.