Trump Just Gave Putin a Way to Get Off Scot-Free on Ukraine War

Donald Trump offered his old pal Russian President Vladimir Putin an economic lifeline out of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Monday, while Moscow once again refused to agree to a ceasefire.

The U.S. president wrote on Truth Social that a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin had gone “very well” and signaled an emerging economic alliance between Russia and the United States.

“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” Trump wrote. “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.”

“Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED,” Trump wrote.

The U.S. president added that Ukraine could also get in on the action “in the process of rebuilding its Country.”

Notably, Russia is not subject to Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariff policy. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that Moscow had been spared from Trump’s tariffs because U.S. sanctions already “preclude any meaningful trade,” but the two countries conduct billions in trade every year.

After the conversation, Putin signaled that his government was prepared to work with Ukrainian officials on a “memorandum regarding a potential future peace treaty,” but he still hadn’t budged on requests for a ceasefire and still demanded that Ukraine address the “root causes” that led to Russia’s invasion, according the Kyiv Independent.

Putin and Trump’s nonstatements don’t indicate any seismic shift in negotiations, as Russia has attempted to prolong peace talks for months.

Just last week, Russian officials seemed far from ready to make nice, after Putin bailed on talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Istanbul, as did Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who called the jilted wartime president “pathetic.”

During a meeting in Istanbul, both sides agreed to a prisoner swap, but one Ukrainian official said it was “unacceptable” that Russian officials continued to demand that Ukraine withdraw its troops from large swaths of its own territory to secure a ceasefire.

After getting off the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump told the world that Putin would “immediately” start negotiating a ceasefire with Ukraine. Putin told a completely different story.

“The U.S. president expressed his position regarding a cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire, and also acknowledged that Russia likewise favors a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. We simply need to identify the most effective paths toward peace,” Putin said after the meeting, refusing to publicly commit to a ceasefire.

“We agreed with the U.S. president that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum concerning a possible future peace treaty. This would outline several provisions, including a framework for resolution, the timeline for potentially concluding a peace agreement, and other relevant details, such as the possibility of a temporary ceasefire if corresponding agreements are reached.”

“At the same time, I want to emphasize that, overall, Russia’s position is clear,” Putin said after the call. “Our main objective is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis.”

From Trump’s angle, this looks like a kumbaya moment attached to a lavish deal.

“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the call. “Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately.”

Trump has given the Kremlin a financial out, allowing it to back Ukraine further into a corner with no commitment to any sort of deal—or even negotiations for a deal—and no accountability. And while these ceasefire talks fall flat, the Kremlin launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine to date, killing 11 people over the weekend.

Putin’s statement does not instill confidence in a Russian ceasefire. So much for ending the war on day one.

Walmart may be wading through dangerous waters with Donald Trump’s administration after announcing that the president’s tariffs would likely lead to price increases for consumers.

During CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday, co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty about the president’s recent outrage at Walmart. The mega retail chain’s CFO warned last week that consumers might start to see higher prices on products as soon as June.

“In the short term, if Walmart decides that they have to raise prices, do you think that that’s un-American, effectively?” Sorkin asked.

“I think Walmart’s gonna have to make some decisions; Walmart has the broadest base of American clients there is. I think they’re gonna be very careful about how they do this. I know that they’ve received some criticism from the president. I think they need to think hard,” Hagerty replied.

Walmart’s CFO had explained that Walmart imports a third of its merchandise and food from other countries, with China being the largest supplier, followed by Mexico, Canada, India, and Vietnam, making it vulnerable to supply chain disruptions sparked by Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariff policy. He also said that it wouldn’t be easy to adapt to changes in demand sparked by fluctuations in pricing.

Trump had hit back at the retail corporation in an angry post on Truth Social Saturday. “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” he wrote.

The president advised Walmart, which had made more money than it expected, to “EAT THE TARIFFS” and not increase prices on consumer goods. CNBC reported that Walmart had beat earnings estimates but fallen short on sales.

“I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!” the president warned.

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked whether Trump’s “Eat the tariffs” line meant that he wanted American companies to be “less profitable.” Bessent confirmed that Walmart CEO Doug McMillon had told him the company planned to “eat some of the tariffs.” The rest would likely still fall on consumers.

Last week, the White House announced that it had negotiated a lowered tariff rate of 30 percent on Chinese imports to the U.S. for the next 90 days.

The president’s tariffs on China appear to have backfired.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that U.S. tariffs on China would temporarily decrease to 30 percent from 145 percent for the next 90 days. The suspension followed a meeting in Geneva where Bessent and other U.S. officials met with their Chinese counterparts and temporarily put aside some of their differences. In exchange, China said it would lower its import tariff on American products to 10 percent from 125 percent. Both nations agreed to maintain a reciprocal tariff rate of 10 percent.

But countries “from Seoul to Brussels” have taken notice of the exchange, observing that tougher tactics against Trump appear to be the best recourse against the punishing tariffs, Bloomberg reported Sunday.

“This shifts the negotiating dynamic,” Stephen Olson, a former U.S. trade negotiator, told Bloomberg. “Many countries will look at the outcome of the Geneva negotiations and conclude that Trump has begun to realize that he has overplayed his hand.”

The Trump administration is running out of time to secure what it had promised would be “90 deals in 90 days” on U.S. trade—and other foreign leaders are realizing that they have better cards than they originally thought, leading them to play the waiting game rather than participate in a frenzied lineup for potential trade relief from Washington.

South Korea’s leading presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has indicated that there’s no need to rush negotiations with U.S. trade officials. Japan’s Trade Minister Yoji Muto skipped a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in South Korea last week.

“We will keep time limits in mind during negotiations, but we have no intention of compromising our national interests by becoming overly fixated on them,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in Parliament Monday.

And some nations could be banking on the fact that the U.S. will be the first to feel the sting of Trump’s tariffs, forcing a policy change from within.

“The economic pain is more immediate and broad-based in the U.S., and this deal can be seen as the Trump administration acknowledging that,” Robert Subbaraman, head of global markets research at Nomura Holdings Inc, told Bloomberg.

Senator Rick Scott thinks that people who won’t work are choosing not to have health care.

The Florida Republican made the outrageous statement in an interview on Fox and Friends Monday morning, responding to Charles Hurt’s leading question about “one of the sticking points” of the GOP’s budget bill being “about paying able-bodied 30-year-old men without dependents welfare with no work requirement.”

“Why do some of your colleagues have a problem with that?” Hurt asked Scott. The Florida senator then responded with his pronouncement.

“If you don’t want to work, you’re the one that decided you don’t want health care. That’s number one. Number two: Medicaid is supposed to be for children that don’t have health care and people with chronic illness,” Scott said.

Scott’s perception of Medicaid is horrible. It fails to take into account people whose illnesses prevent them from working, those whose jobs don’t offer health insurance, or those who want to work but can’t get jobs for multiple reasons, such as serving as a caregiver or having a criminal record.

And aside from that, Scott’s own background betrays his massive hypocrisy. Before he entered politics, Scott was the head of Columbia/HCA, one of the country’s biggest for-profit hospital chains, which was found responsible for the largest Medicare and Medicaid fraud case in the country’s history, receiving $1.7 billion in fines. The company “systemically defrauded” federal health care programs while paying kickbacks to its physicians.

Scott knows quite well that the real waste and fraud in health care is from companies like his own, which made him one of the wealthiest people in Congress. He has never faced consequences for his role in the fraud, serving as Florida’s governor and later a senator. Perhaps, though, he should keep his mouth shut when it comes to attacking people who depend on the government health care service.