Trump Warns US May 'Take a Pass' on Ukraine Peace Talks if Russia Won't Cooperate

President Donald Trump made it clear on Friday that the United States won't stick around forever trying to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. If Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't agree to ceasefire terms, Trump said, America will "just take a pass" on further peace efforts.

Speaking to reporters, Trump didn't mince words: "If for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say 'you're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people,' and we're going to just take a pass. But hopefully we won't have to do that." It's not every day you hear world leaders get this blunt, but subtlety has never really been Trump's thing.

Trump's remarks closely followed statements from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met earlier in Paris with special envoy Steve Witkoff, French President Emmanuel Macron, and officials from Ukraine, Germany, and the U.K. This was the first meeting of its kind and a sign that European players are getting more involved in the push for a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.

While Ukraine has agreed to several ceasefire proposals, Russia has been dragging its feet, delaying any concrete agreement for weeks. Despite the foot-dragging, Russia is reportedly still honoring a 30-day ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, at least for now.

"If we're so far apart this won't happen, then the president is ready to move on," Rubio told the press after his "very positive" Paris talks. He also made it clear the U.S. isn't interested in endless globe-trotting for meetings that don't go anywhere: "We're not going to continue to fly all over the world and do meeting after meeting after meeting if no progress is being made. We're going to move on to other topics that are equally if not more important in some ways to the United States."

What happens next isn't exactly set in stone. It's unclear how far the U.S. would go in supporting Ukraine if Russia refuses to end its invasion, or whether Trump will actually follow through on his threat to slap more sanctions on Russia.

Last month, Trump told NBC News he was "very angry" and "pissed off" after Putin signaled he wasn't interested in a ceasefire with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump warned that if Russia is to blame for the lack of progress, he'd impose hefty secondary tariffs on Russian oil — up to 50%. He said, "That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can't do business in the United States."

As for a timeline, Trump wouldn't say exactly how many days Russia has to decide, but he stressed that it needs to happen "quickly — we want to get it done." The world is watching, and so far, the clock is ticking louder than any diplomatic handshake.