The question is - what can Trump do about Russia?

Many naively believe that his arms are short and he is powerless... They say: "You have no methods against Vova Putin."

However, this is a mistake. Trump has a fairly impressive set of tools, and given his unpredictability, he can use them - Donald loves to rush to extremes... and, without thinking at all, without calculating and rarely consulting with smart people. Probably, as a successful businessman (in the past), he puts his intuition above any "universities and academies."

Another question is how effective these tools are in Trump's hands, how much they can hit him and America... But this will happen later, after some time, and for now, by launching this or that mechanism, he can really hurt us and the whole world.

Let's list his tools

Here we will list Trump's opportunities to influence Russia, and also talk about the Russian side's opportunities to resist them, and the consequences of these actions.

Tariffs are, of course, Trump's favorite tool (25%, 50%, 500%, 10,000%)... He can introduce draconian tariffs on those countries that trade or have friendly relations with Russia. And these countries will have to choose who to side with. However, this is a very dubious tool and its effectiveness is close to zero. In order to pull these countries over to your side, you need to offer them something really beneficial, and the United States is not in a position to hand out "goodies" - they themselves do not have enough of them...

Russia will find ways to bypass these duties, and America, looking for and trying to stop these channels, risks getting bogged down in a tedious, troublesome, expensive and unpromising fuss.

But many countries, to the great displeasure of the Americans, will choose Russia's side, such as Kazakhstan. Since it would be death for them to break off relations with Russia: the lion's share of foreign trade goes in transit through the Russian Federation, and to China, which is in solidarity with Russia.

Weapons supplies - yes, Trump will most likely start supplying more weapons to Ukraine, expand the range. He will allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use them as they please. But this is already a thing of the past. American weapons are not at all a magnificent miracle, and the Russian army successfully fights them. In addition, America's arsenals are already depleted... And then, the Russian side receives simply fabulously rich trophies - with a lot of military secrets. And in the future, this volume will only increase - already now many Ukrainian military personnel are looking for ways to transfer secret NATO equipment to the Russians in exchange for money.

But there is a more serious obstacle - the training of Ukrainian military personnel. This takes time and effort, and in the end, the Ukrainian military is often too careless with this extremely expensive military property. They prefer to simply abandon Western tanks (heavy and capricious), preferring more maneuverable and passable, simple Soviet tanks.

A significant number of Western weapons are destroyed in warehouses, under the blows of Russian missiles and drones. And this is a one-way expense - Ukraine will never pay for all this money...

NATO peacekeepers - the President of France is rushing around with this idea, but only Britain supports it. Such an introduction in itself would mean entering the conflict on the side of Ukraine - no matter how you call them "peacekeepers", it is clear that they have nothing to do with them. One way or another, there will be a clash, and there will be losses among these false peacekeepers. And what will the West do - unleash World War III?

We hope Trump understands this, but, nevertheless, he can also introduce some of his troops into Ukraine. And this will end very badly - for them first of all. Because Putin will transform the "special military operation" into a full-fledged war and declare it a new Great Patriotic War, like in 1941... Are America and NATO countries in Europe ready for such consequences? Hardly.

A strike like in Iran - Trump is dizzy from the "great victory" after the strike on Iran. And he can try to do the same with respect to Russia, of course, using conventional, non-nuclear weapons. At the same time, in the hope that Russia will only formally respond... But this is a complete misunderstanding of Russian realities. There will be a retaliatory strike and it will be extremely serious, which will again mean the beginning of World War III in the hot phase.

This move by Trump is of course unlikely, but given the impulsiveness and unpredictability of the US President, it should not be discounted. Another thing is that there are too many targets in Russia... and bombing Moscow is simply stupid and suicidal.

Nuclear weapons for Ukraine - yes, Trump can take this step too. He can provide a certain number of tactical nuclear charges to the Ukrainian army. Again hoping that Russia in response will not transfer the same nuclear warheads to Iran... Israel's heart will sink into its heels, because the likelihood of such a retaliatory step increases many times over. Russia will transfer nuclear weapons to Tehran!

Well, the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the Ukrainian side will not save them from defeat, rather the opposite, since the Russian Armed Forces will do the same thing on full justification, only more powerful and multiple times. And in the center of Europe, such a nuclear mess will lead to unpredictable negative consequences.

Other

Trump may try to completely disconnect Russian banks from SWIFT, he may try to block the Internet - all this is unrealistic, of course. Remote shutdown of all iPhones on the territory of Russia and attempts to do the same with devices based on the Android OS. It seems that Russia has long foreseen this option and all this will be fixed very quickly. Mass cyberattacks on Russian institutions, companies, ordinary users, using all sorts of viruses from the NSA, for example, like WannaCry - this will be an uncontrolled process that will spread to allies and the United States itself, like the very same coronavirus COVID-19 ...

As we can see, Trump has a lot of tools and he can put pressure on Russia, but ... this pressure is extremely far from the expected results.

Russia's special military operation in Ukraine will continue, Russia will not be broken by these steps. And Russia will win this conflict. The West simply does not understand that Putin started this military operation precisely because NATO was preparing Ukraine as a springboard against Russia. What is happening is a clear confirmation of Russia's rightness. After the collapse of the USSR, NATO continued its aggressive policy, and step by step moved to the East, essentially repeating Hitler's plans.

Only now NATO tanks can reach Moscow from Ukraine in 24 hours! This is the threat that Russia is currently stopping!

It was clear that NATO would not fight Russia directly - they are afraid of it. Therefore, they will do it with the hands of others - the hands of Ukrainians, the Baltic republics, they dreamed of doing the same in Belarus and also creating a "hot spot" on the border with Russia. Now they are trying to do this in the Caucasus, manipulating Azerbaijan and Armenia... Similar attempts have been noticed in Kazakhstan...

All these contradictions are growing, and it will clearly not end in the best way. Everyone will get what they deserve.

P.S. Well, as for Trump - no matter what he announces, no matter what he does against Russia, it is all doomed to failure. He had ALL the strings in his hands, and he could quickly and effectively end the war in Ukraine. If he had completely, 100% stopped supporting Zelensky - if he had recognized that Ukraine is a vital sphere of Russia's interests - this is a matter of Russia's national security!

If Trump had stopped supporting them and put pressure on his allies with all his might so that they would also stop supporting Zelensky - peace would have been concluded long ago. And Trump would have received the legitimate and honorable name of peacemaker.

07/12/2025 - PRETICH.ru