President Donald Trump is increasing pressure on Vladimir Putin, giving the Russian president a shortened deadline to restart peace talks with Ukraine or threatening to hit him with economic sanctions.
‘I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today. There’s no reason in waiting,’ he said during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Turnberry, Scotland. ‘I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.’
Originally, Trump gave Putin a 50-day deadline and threatened to bring stiff economic penalties on Russia if it did not end hostilities with Ukraine. That would’ve meant a target date of early September for Putin to make a decision.
But he’s now expressing his impatience with Russia’ continued bombardment of Ukraine.
‘I’m disappointed in President Putin,’ he said earlier Monday. ‘Very disappointed.’
Trump added he’s ‘not so interested in talking anymore’ to the Russian leader.
Trump imposed his original deadline a month ago but Putin has continued to launch missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
‘We thought we had that settled numerous times,’ Trump noted.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) talks with President Donald Trump during a bilateral meeting at the Trump Turnberry Golf Courses
The president’s frustration was visible. He pointed out that he thought ‘five times we had a deal.’
‘And then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street. And I say that’s not the way to do it.’
Trump has been pushing for an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
The president’s comment came during his high-stakes meeting with the British prime minister where the two men discussed the details of the U.S.-UK trade deal and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Starmer talks come the day after Trump negotiated a trade deal with the European Union where EU countries will purchase $750 billion of energy from the U.S., and provide an additional $600 billion in U.S. investments.
The deal was described by Trump as a ‘very powerful deal’ as well as ‘a very big deal.’ He also called it ‘the biggest deal ever made.’
The EU also agreed to tariffs of 15 percent on automobiles and most other E.U. goods.
Those tariffs are higher than the 10 percent duty on most British goods that Britain, which is not in the European Union, agreed to in a deal that Starmer and Trump signed in May.
The two men have met before and have a good relationship.
‘I like your prime minister. He’s slightly more liberal than I am – as you probably heard – but he’s a good man. He got a trade deal done,’ Trump told reporters after he landed in Scotland.
President Donald Trump greets British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer at Trump Turnberry golf club
President Donald Trump and his son Eric play a round of golf at Trump Turnberry
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented President Donald Trump with a letter from King Charles II when he visited the Oval Office in February
Relations were helped when Starmer visited the White House in February, arriving with a letter from King Charles II, inviting Trump to the UK for a state visit.
Starmer, in front of the cameras, handed it to Trump in the Oval Office.
The president accepted the invitation and described it as an ‘honour’.
After a meeting at the course, Starmer and Trump will travel together to Trump’s golf course in Aberdeen.
The president arrived in Scotland on Friday and has played a few rounds of golf on his Turnberry course with his sons.
