AProudLefty
The remora of JPP
President Trump has never been shy with words. Yet until now, he has tiptoed around Russian President Vladimir Putin with puzzling restraint. That ended with his latest salvo on Truth Social: a vow to unleash “large-scale banking sanctions, sanctions, and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached.”
It is a seismic jolt to the Ukraine peace talks — the first time Trump has brandished the threat of American economic might to force Putin’s hand.
This is the right play. The test is whether Trump will swing the hammer with the precision it demands.
Sanctions do not work unless they break something vital. The Biden administration learned this lesson the hard way after Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Biden’s sanctions were expansive, targeting Moscow’s financial networks, its ghost tankers, and its domestic industry, but they dribbled out too slowly over three years. They stung but never crippled Putin’s war machine to the breaking point.
Trump’s escalation should instead be a sledgehammer, applying an unbearable blow that will leave Moscow desperate for the relief of peace.
It is a seismic jolt to the Ukraine peace talks — the first time Trump has brandished the threat of American economic might to force Putin’s hand.
This is the right play. The test is whether Trump will swing the hammer with the precision it demands.
Sanctions do not work unless they break something vital. The Biden administration learned this lesson the hard way after Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Biden’s sanctions were expansive, targeting Moscow’s financial networks, its ghost tankers, and its domestic industry, but they dribbled out too slowly over three years. They stung but never crippled Putin’s war machine to the breaking point.
Trump’s escalation should instead be a sledgehammer, applying an unbearable blow that will leave Moscow desperate for the relief of peace.