Trump approves arms for Ukraine, threatens sanctions on Russia if no peace deal in 50 days - National & International News -

Trump approves arms for Ukraine, threatens sanctions on Russia if no peace deal in 50 days.

Supreme Court clears way for mass layoffs at Department of Education.

Trump approves new arms for Ukraine, threatens sanctions on Russia if no peace deal in 50 days

During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, President Trump announced a new scheme to boost weapons transfers to Ukraine. He also threatened new sanctions targeting Russia’s oil industry, which is largely powering its economy.

The weapons transfer scheme entails European countries purchasing American weapons and then sending them to Ukraine. This has the advantage for Trump of not appearing to go back on his campaign promise to pull back US involvement in the conflict. He also touted it as a major windfall for American weapons manufacturing, avoiding the criticism of direct US spending to bolster Ukraine’s war effort.

The sanctions will take the form of tariffs, which Trump called “secondary tariffs”. The US does very little trade with Russia directly, so tariffs on Russian goods entering the US would have little impact. However, Trump says he is prepared to impose a 100% tariff on countries who continue to purchase oil from Russia (thus funding its war effort) if Russia has not agreed to a peace deal in the next 50 days. The two main largest consumers of Russian oil at this point are China and India.

A bill that was working its way through Congress was calling for 500% sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil. That bill has been put on hold for now following Trump’s announcement today.

Diplomacy implications

Trump imposing steep sanctions on China is nothing new. However, the US and India have long been strong allies and Trump himself has a warm relationship with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last year, the US imported about $87 billion worth of goods from India, with about a $46 billion trade deficit.

Also worth noting was the fact during his remarks today, Trump was uncharacteristically complementary of European leadership and their willingness to pitch in as a sort of middle man in these weapons transfers. A reporter followed up asking about the current negotiations on Trump’s proposal for 30% tariffs on Europe (the deadline for which is August 1). Trump said European leaders will be arriving this week to discuss them.

In recent weeks, Trump has expressed disappointment with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that despite their cordial talks, Putin indicates he is not serious about ending the war. “I always hang up, say, ‘Well, that was a nice phone call.’ And then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city and I say, ‘That’s strange.’ And after that happens three or four times, you say, the talk doesn’t mean anything,” Trump said.

However, Trump’s conversations with Putin do seem to have borne some fruit. Putin has reportedly urged his ally Iran to accept a nuclear deal with the US, which would bar Iran from enriching uranium at all (though Russia’s Foreign Ministry now denies this report).

Supreme Court clears way for Trump to carry out mass layoffs at Department of Education

In an unsigned opinion, which appears to be decided a long ideological lines, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration can move ahead with a planned wave of dismissals from the Department of Education while lower-court challenges play out.

The decision overrules a stay put in place by lower federal courts which both barred the dismissal of 1,400 department employees and prevented the administration from assigning the department’s functions to other agencies. Some of those key functions include:

funding to support the education of children with disabilities
funding for needy districts
enforcing civil rights in schools
overseeing the $1.7 trillion portfolio of student loans.

The court’s majority offered no explanation or legal justification for their ruling.

In a lengthy and scathing dissent, liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor said that the majority’s decision radically undermined the separation of powers. Congress established the Department of Education in 1979. Under the Constitution, Trump cannot unilaterally dismantle and abolish the Department of Education without the approval of Congress. “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it”. In a blistering rebuke of her conservative colleagues, Sotomayor wrote that the majority was “either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave”. Sotomayor was joined in her dissent by Justices Kagan and Jackson.

Lawsuits brought against the administration by labor unions and attorneys general from 21 Democrat-led states will continue in lower courts for now.