Trump takes aim at US aid to Ukraine during Ohio visit

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As recently as last week, congressional leaders attended a security conference in Germany in hopes of conveying to the world that the United States’ support for Ukraine remains steadfast. The delegation includes both the top Democrat in the Senate, New York’s Chuck Schumer, and the chamber’s leading Republican, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, indicating a united, bipartisan front.

McConnell seemed to acknowledge the chatter about his party walking away from aid to Ukraine, but he did his best to dismiss it.

My party leaders strongly support a strong, engaged America and a strong trans-Atlantic alliance. Don’t look at Twitter, look at the people in power, the GOP leader said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. He added, Reports of waning Republican support for strong American leadership in the world have been greatly exaggerated.

To be sure, he has many partisan companies. For example, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, co-authored a new Wall Street Journal op-ed emphasizing the same points, and Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, traveled to Kyiv this week and stressed US support for our allies in Ukraine.

However, there is another contingent of the GOP, and its members have a different kind of message. Take Donald Trump, for example, who traveled yesterday to East Palestine, Ohio, where he made some pointed comments about support for Ukraine. The Washington Post reported:

In brief remarks given during his visit, Trump denounced the aid the United States has sent to Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression, saying he hoped the US government would have money to help rebuild the East Palestine after the derailment. I sincerely hope that when your representatives and all the politicians get here with Biden, they come back from the tour of Ukraine, that he has some money left, Trump said, noting that the country is gave billions in aid to Ukraine than Europe.

As the former president probably knows, the United States is the richest country in the world, and we have the resources to help an Ohio community deal with a derailment disaster and our international allies. It is not an either / or dynamic that made it all the more remarkable that the Republican free criticized Ukrainian aid to the locals in East Palestine.

This comes the same week that the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, appeared on Fox News and criticized the Biden administration’s policy as an open-ended blank check, which the governor said was unacceptable.

Several high-profile far-right GOP lawmakers including Floridas Matt Gaetz and Arizonas Paul Gosar, among others have also spent this week reiterating their opposition to US support for Ukraine.

As the world marks the one-year anniversary of Russia launching an accidental attack on its neighbor, it’s fair to say that the Republican Party’s divisions are becoming clearer and Trump isn’t exactly reading from the same script as GOP leaders. .

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