The former president is playing a cynical game with U.S. aid for Kyiv, and Republicans are following him. The ones who suffer are the Ukrainian people.
There haven’t been a lack of warnings — but repetition dulls the senses. Some people considered all the excitement to be just drama. European politicians have been calm for far too long, persuaded by “moderate” Republicans in Washington to think that the worst wouldn’t happen in the end.
But now, the sugar-coating and self-delusion are over: U.S. aid for Ukraine has come to an abrupt end. A month-long negotiated compromise has collapsed, and Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has failed: It is very unlikely that Congress will approve any further funding. This is catastrophic news for Ukraine, a disastrous oath of revelation from the leading Western power and devastating proof of the great nihilist Donald Trump’s destructive power.
Trump’s perfidious tactics are hard to beat in terms of cynicism: First, he used nationalist slogans to play off the situation in war-torn Ukraine against the problems at the U.S. southern border, through which thousands of illegal immigrants pass daily. Then, he defamed these same people as criminal invaders and made their rejection a prerequisite for further aid to Ukraine. But when three bipartisan negotiators actually presented a 370-page compromise package that links billions of dollars’ worth of investment into U.S. border facilities and drastic changes in asylum laws with the provision of $60 billion for Ukraine, Trump turned things around and blew up the entire deal.
Failure Is Certain
Having no bill is better than this, the former president suddenly claimed, even though the business community, the Border Patrol union, the staunchly conservative Wall Street Journal, as well as McConnell, all vehemently campaigned for it. But Trump doesn’t want a solution to the immigration problem. It doesn’t matter to him that even if he wins the election in November, he may never have the chance to pass an effective immigration reform, since the House of Representatives will likely fall to the Democrats. Trump wants chaos, and the more the better to continue his election campaign.
One Republican after another has backed away from the deal over the past few days, and the usual opportunists such as Trump lackey Lindsey Graham moved away from the deal. Now, even McConnell is backing away.
Without McConnell’s support, it’s most likely over now: The bill will not get the required 60-vote majority in the vote scheduled for Wednesday, and its failure in the House of Representatives is certain. Trying again would likely be just as unsuccessful.
The ones who suffer now are the people in Ukraine, who are heroically standing up to Russia. They are fighting for the very freedom that Republican politicians once paraded around like a banner. But that is unimportant to Trump and his far-right populist consorts: Ukrainians have no say in the U.S. presidential election — and if there’s any doubt, financially there is more to be gained from Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.
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