Trump to NATO: My Way or More War

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Reviving his “America First” playbook, Trump tells allies to cut Russian oil, slap 100% tariffs on China and India, and follow his lead—or face endless bloodshed in Ukraine.

By TRH Global Affairs Desk

NEW DELHI, September 13, 2025 — US President Donald Trump has once again put NATO on notice—this time with a letter that reads like both a campaign manifesto and a geopolitical ultimatum. Circulated under the White House insignia and amplified on his social media, the letter urges NATO nations to adopt sweeping sanctions on Russia, halt all oil imports from Moscow, and impose punitive 100% tariffs on China and India. The subtext is clear: Trump believes only his brand of hard-nosed economic pressure can bring a “quick end” to the Ukraine war.

This intervention is in keeping with Trump’s long record of browbeating allies. During his first presidency, he accused NATO members of freeloading on US defence spending and threatened to withhold security guarantees unless Europe paid its “fair share.” On Ukraine, he has consistently argued that the Biden administration’s support has dragged America into a costly, avoidable conflict. Trump insists that had he been in charge, “the war would never have started.”

The NATO letter is a distillation of that rhetoric: transactional, absolutist, and laced with Trumpian hyperbole. He frames NATO’s purchases of Russian oil as a betrayal of collective bargaining strength, blasting allies for “shocking” dependence on Moscow. He declares that if NATO obeys his strategy, “the war will end quickly” and thousands of lives will be saved. The implication is that Western hesitation, not Vladimir Putin’s invasion, is prolonging the bloodshed.

Trump’s call for tariffs on China and India extends his familiar toolkit of economic nationalism. He paints Beijing as the ultimate beneficiary of a weak Western response, arguing that only coordinated tariffs can “break China’s grip.” India, once courted by Trump as a strategic partner, is now lumped into the same basket for continuing to import discounted Russian crude.

Critics see this as vintage Trump: a blunt instrument of threats rather than a nuanced foreign policy. Europe, still reeling from energy shocks and navigating its own 2028 timeline to phase out Russian dependence, is unlikely to embrace Trump’s all-at-once approach. And calls to sanction India—a vital counterweight to China—clash with long-standing US strategic interests in Asia.

Still, the letter signals how Trump intends to fuse his America First doctrine with NATO policy: tariffs as weapons, alliances as leverage, and a promise that strongman economics can substitute for long wars.

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