Trump nixed new Russia sanctions hours after Nikki Haley announced they were coming

Not so fast on those new Russia sanctions.

President Trump has reportedly nixed a plan to slap Russia with fresh sanctions hours after they were announced by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on a Sunday talk show.

Haley told CBS' “Face the Nation” that new sanctions on companies dealing in equipment related to chemical weapons would drop by Monday, in response to Russia’s support for Syria in its recent suspected chemical attack. But later in the day, Trump told senior advisers he was upset that the sanctions were already being rolled out, because he wasn’t yet comfortable executing them, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the plan.

Instead, Trump is now unlikely to approve any more sanctions on Russia unless Moscow pulls another “triggering event,” the Post’s sources said. They described the current strategy as a “holding pattern.”

The U.S. hammered Russia with a new round of sanctions on April 6, creating turmoil in Russian financial markets and sending its currency, the ruble, into a tailspin. Those measures targeted some of Russia’s most high-profile and well-connected billionaires and their companies, including industrial tycoon Oleg Deripaska and his aluminum holding UC Rusal.

Then, on Friday, Trump announced missile strikes on Syria in response to the regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons. His announcement came with a warning to Syria’s main international backers, Russia and Iran, to be careful about standing too close behind Syrian President Bashar Assad.

On Sunday, Haley said Russia would get hit with more sanctions by Monday at the latest.

“You will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down,” Haley said. “[Treasury] Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday, if he hasn't already.”

But around noon Monday, White House Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders implied something about that wasn’t quite right. She didn't get too specific.

Asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One flying to Miami whether new sanctions were on the way, she replied: “We’ll keep you guys posted…. We’re evaluating, but nothing to announce right now.”

Cover image: Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during a Security Council meeting, Friday, April 13, 2018, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)