President Donald Trump accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of talking "bullshit" about Ukraine, saying that the United States would send Kiev more weapons to defend itself.
"We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth," Trump told reporters on Tuesday during a televised cabinet meeting at the White House.
"He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."
Trump reiterated that he was "very unhappy" with Putin since their phone call last week made no progress on the Ukraine peace deal that the US president has pushed for since returning to power.
Asked about his interest in a bill proposed by the Senate for further sanctions on Russia, Trump said: "I'm looking at it very strongly."
Trump's criticism of Putin came a day after he said he would send more weapons to Ukraine, in a reversal of Washington's announcement last week that it was halting some arms shipments.
"Putin is not treating human beings right. He's killing too many people. So we're sending some defensive weapons and I've approved that," Trump said.
Trump has promised to immediately send 10 Patriot interceptors - anti-missile systems - to Ukraine, according to US news website Axios.
Ending Gaza war
Trump said he will meet again with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon to discuss ending Gaza war.
"He's coming over later. We're going to be talking about, I would say, almost exclusively Gaza. We've got to get that solved," Trump told reporters, after the two leaders met on Monday during Netanyahu's third visit to Washington since the Republican returned to the White House.
'No extensions' to tariff deadline
He said that he would not extend an August 1 deadline for higher US tariffs to take effect on dozens of economies, a day after he appeared to signal flexibility on the date.
While Trump imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on goods from almost all trading partners in April, higher rates customised to dozens of economies were unveiled, then halted until July 9.
He added that the levies would start being paid on August 1, in line with letters now being sent out to trading partners.
"No extensions will be granted," he posted on Truth Social. "There will be no change."
In his messages to foreign leaders, Trump warned of further escalation if there was retaliation against his levies.
'Very nice'
At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump insisted that "big money will start coming in on August 1."
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added at the meeting that tariff income could exceed $300 billion by year-end.
The Trump administration is under pressure to show results after promising a flurry of deals following the US president's tariff threats.
Trump said that Washington was "probably two days off" from sending the European Union a letter setting out the updated tariff rate that the bloc would face.
"They're very tough, but now they're being very nice to us, and we'll see what happens," he said. "We are talking to them."
Trump recently doubled US tariffs on imports of both metals to 50 percent while exempting the UK from this increase. But Washington could double the levy on UK steel and aluminium too starting Wednesday, if it determined that London had not complied with terms of their earlier deal.
