Trump backs new sanctions when NATO stops buying Russian oil

Shiyin Chen, Bloomberg News on Sep 13, 2025

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President Donald Trump said he’s prepared to move ahead with “major” sanctions on Russian oil if NATO countries do the same.

Trump, a day after he said he was losing patience with President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, said he’s “ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” in a post on his Truth Social site early Saturday.

Many European nations have cut back or stopped purchasing Russian oil, but several NATO allies — including Hungary — have blocked more stringent proposals by the European Union to target Russia’s energy sector.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the U.S. planned to urge allies in the Group of Seven to impose tariffs as high as 100% on China and India for their purchases of Russian oil, as part of an effort to convince Putin to end Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

“This, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR,” Trump wrote.

Trump has at times adopted a softer tone toward China as he continues to push for a summit with President Xi Jinping and a trade deal with the world’s second-largest economy. And any move to impose sanctions on China would likely draw a strong retaliatory response from Beijing and disrupt the tentative trade war truce between the US and China.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet with Chinese officials in Madrid in the coming days. G7 finance ministers discussed how to increase pressure on Russia during a meeting on Friday.

Up to now, Trump has resisted adding new sanctions on Russia as he pursued peace talks with Putin. But, after holding a summit with Putin in Alaska that failed to yield any pause in Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, Trump was unable to arrange a three-way meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In recent days, there have been increasing signs that Trump’s patience with Putin is wearing thin, particularly with Russia conducting several days of dramatic airstrikes in Kyiv in the wake of the Alaska meeting.

“As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” he added.

Hungarian President Viktor Orban, a Trump ally who has also maintained close ties with Putin, has shown little willingness to shift his opposition to sanctions on Russian oil. The country has a contract with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC for 4.5 billion cubic meters a year that runs until 2036, which has been supplemented with additional purchases since 2022.

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(With assistance from Ros Krasny.)