Trump pressures Republicans to end Ukraine aid deal

Donald Trump is trying to bend U.S. foreign policy to his ambition to return to the White House.

The presidential election is still a full nine months away, but Donald Trump is already wielding extraordinary influence as he attempts to bend U.S. foreign policy to his ambition to return to the White House.

The Republican, who has been a private citizen since leaving office in 2021 but is running for re-election, is urging his party to reject a bill that would tie the toughest border security measures in a generation to $60 billion in Ukraine aid.

“Don’t be stupid!!! We need a separate border and immigration bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape or form!” Trump posted on social media, which he looks almost certain to do to face President Joe Biden again in November.

Biden and Trump have taken sharply different approaches to Ukraine, with the Democrat making clear that helping the pro-Western ally repel Russia is crucial to ensuring a safer world, while his predecessor pushed for isolationism and “America First” policy.

At home, Biden has pressed for humane immigration policies, but Republicans point to statistics showing a record 302,000 immigrants were apprehended in December alone, a surge that Trump has made a campaign plan main problem.

Demands that military aid to Ukraine be tied to immigration reform first came from Republicans, with Trump keen to equate the border crisis with the chaos abroad he has repeatedly claimed he could avoid.

-Iron Grip-

On Sunday, senators unveiled a bipartisan $118 billion package of immigration restrictions, which Biden has pledged to sign into law. It is tied to a foreign aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.

The deal, which provides $20 billion in new border funding, would be a major victory for immigration hawks because it is packed with concessions that Democrats typically oppose.

But Trump has an iron grip on House Republicans and has repeatedly called on the party to kill the legislation and prevent Biden and his Democrats from achieving a political victory before the November election.

“This bill is a great gift to the Democrats and a death wish to the Republican Party,” Trump said on his Truth social site on Monday.

Some House Republicans in districts where Biden won have expressed concerns about withdrawing from the deal, especially as the party plans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week over the border crisis.

But Trump’s landslide victory in the early stages of the Republican presidential primary race for the nomination solidified support for his candidacy, with more than 150 members of Congress now backing him.

-“Existential Fear”-

The bill’s key test will be its first procedural vote, likely on Wednesday, which will require the support of 60 senators out of 100, with the two parties almost evenly divided.

Even if that hurdle is overcome, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who speaks regularly with Trump, said the deal would be “dead on arrival” if it reached the Republican-controlled lower chamber.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned last week that if the United States did not approve the $60 billion in funding, any gains Ukraine had made in two years of war would be called into question.

While Trump has focused his criticism on the domestic aspects of the bill, critics believe his opposition is part of the controversial billionaire’s effort to prioritize his electoral ambitions over U.S. national security concerns regarding Ukraine. another example.

Trump was impeached in 2019 for trying to coerce Kyiv into smearing Biden when Republicans withheld $400 million in critical military aid that Congress had approved for the embattled ally.

In its forecast of security risks in 2024, the influential Eurasia Group think tank said a Trump victory in November would “call into question the United States’ commitment to NATO and could mean an end to U.S. support for Ukraine.”

“Both will have an impact on Europe’s fragile security landscape and trigger existential fears among Europeans, especially on NATO’s eastern flank,” the report said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)