POLITICS: ‘Playing With Fire’ – USSA News

As President Donald Trump trades barbs with the Kremlin, both the administration and the Senate are mulling imposing tougher sanctions on Putin’s Russia to force the country to the negotiating table and end its war in Ukraine.

Despite reported deliberations inside the second Trump administration, the president has so far declined to ratchet up sanctions on Putin’s regime in the hopes of facilitating good-faith negotiations. The administration’s options in generating incremental financial leverage over Russia are somewhat limited.

Though Trump repeatedly promised during the campaign to end the war within “24 hours,” the president’s pushes, prodding, and pleas for negotiations have gone unreciprocated by Moscow. Trump has been reluctant to impose tougher sanctions measures to punish Russia, in part over worries that they would further drive the country into China’s arms.

Putin failed to meet prior commitments

The president’s patience with Putin may be wearing thin. In fact, Putin’s reluctance to engage in the Trump-instigated peace negotiations appears to be frustrating to the American president, causing him to lash out at the Russian leader in several statements in recent days. On Tuesday, following a weekend of veiled warnings to Russia, President Trump warned that, by continuing attacks on Ukraine, Russia’s Putin is “playing with fire.”

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!” Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social.

Fred Fleitz, former Chief of Staff on President Trump’s first term National Security Council, told Just the News that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is moving into a very “dangerous stage” as Putin escalates attacks while spurning offers by the United States to facilitate negotiations.