Unlike his predecessor, when a Russian flunky threatens nuclear consequences, President Trump does not back down. He calls his bluff. Dmitry Medvedev tried to do just that. Who is Medvedev? He’s the former Russian president. Or, rather, he played the role while Putin pulled the strings and Medvedev’s mouth moved. In Texas, they refer to this as all belt buckle and no cattle. However, just so there is no mistake about who is who in the world, if you want to talk big, then you’d better understand your audience.
Also, it would be a good policy to refrain from threatening nuclear Armageddon every time the geopolitical winds don’t blow your way. The “sky is falling” bag of tricks has a limited functional half-life, and eventually, people don’t care if you are just flapping your gums; they’re going to take you seriously and act accordingly.
The latest dust-up between the US and Russia occurred when the president expressed his pique at Vladimir Putin for not stepping up to end the killing in Ukraine. The chief executive had said he was giving the Kremlin’s leader 50 days to agree to end the carnage, but then he shortened it to ten days.
“President Donald Trump on Friday [Aug 1] ordered the deployment of nuclear submarines to ‘appropriate regions’ after a provocative comment from a Russian statement [made by] Dmitry Medvedev,” Just the News reported. Since the US has an all-nuclear submarine fleet typically positioned strategically around the world, the president’s statement on Truth Social that he “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” is more symbolism than substance.
But what of Trump’s threats of increased tariffs? The Harvard Kennedy School publication Russia Matters explained:
“These tariffs would not target Russia directly and instead would be placed on companies located in countries that import goods from Russia. While the US president has yet to specify the details of his proposal, the Graham-Blumenthal bill would assess secondary tariffs on US imports from any country that purchased oil, gas, petroleum products, or uranium from Russia.”
The president’s threats of imposing crippling secondary tariffs are not his alone. Recently proposed legislation cosponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), called the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, would initially levy tariffs of 500%. These tariffs, as the bill states, would be on any country that “knowingly sells, supplies, transfers, or purchases oil, uranium, natural gas, petroleum products, or petrochemical products that originated in the Russian Federation.” The support for this measure in the Senate is high. The bill had the bipartisan backing of 84 additional cosponsors.
The impact would be significant on countries like China and India, which imported $62.6 billion and $52.7 billion in crude oil from Russia in 2024. President Trump recommended a tariff of only 100%. If imposed, countries would find alternative sources for the tariffed goods or accept the hiked price as the cost of doing business. The chief executive would, of course, offer to let them buy energy from the US.
This latest contest between the US and Russia highlighted a very stark contrast in the balance of power between the two countries. Russia realizes it cannot defeat the US in a conventional altercation, nor can it intimidate America economically, so it immediately rattles its nuclear sword. On the other hand, the president has abundant conventional force, with economic weapons to bring Russia to its financial knees, and – if it came to the unthinkable – a formidable nuclear capability. So, when the Medvedevs in the Kremlin start throwing threats, for now, it’s just bluster. Trump is not cowed by bluster.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.