European countries are taking steps to sanction oil infrastructure in China but are unlikely to impose tariffs on Beijing, a step President Trump has set out as a prerequisite of sorts for the U.S. to impose tougher sanctions on Russia.

Trump in a Truth Social post this week said he was “ready to do major Sanctions on Russia” when all members of NATO “do the same thing,” and when NATO members stop buying oil from Russia.

“I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR. China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip,” Trump wrote in the post.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a hawk on Russia, said Friday in a post on X that the European Union’s decision to sanction oil infrastructure was “a significant step in the right direction.”

“I applaud President Trump’s insistence that Europe up its game regarding sanctions and other punitive measures directed toward countries like China, India and Brazil that buy cheap Russian oil, giving Putin the revenue to continue the bloodbath in Ukraine,” Graham wrote.

“I hope and expect that President Trump will now also allow punitive measures toward China for propping up Putin’s war machine,” he added.

But if Trump wants to see European countries first impose tariffs on China, he might have set up a prospect unlikely to be met.

Practically speaking, it is not easy for members of the European Union to approve sanctions, even if some members want to.

The ability to impose tariffs are “under a separate, far more complex regime: they require lengthy legal........

© The Hill