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Explaining the U.S. aid bill: President Trump sees opportunity in chaos, raw, ugly politics is the real story
Mark Stone, US correspondent, based in Washington, DC
The story here is not that the U.S. Senate played a role in passing the Ukraine spending bill (see blog post at 12 p.m.).
The real story is about how we got here, and it’s a raw, ugly political story.
It’s about American leadership, and the extent to which Donald Trump is already shaping global geopolitics.
This is a story that gets to the heart of America’s political turmoil, but it’s not at all simple. note that…
“Secure our own borders first” – Republican plan
Late last year, U.S. funding for Ukraine was in need of renewal, and a new bill was sent from the White House down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress for approval.
That’s when the problems started.
Republicans had legitimate concerns about America’s domestic challenges and saw an opportunity.
Conservative Americans have great concerns about the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the chaotic situation at the southern border with Mexico, which coincidentally also trivializes Europe’s immigration problem. There is.
So Republicans decided to make their support for the Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan spending bill contingent on Joe Biden and the Democrats doing something about the US border migrant mess.
Republicans pitched this as “Why should we help Ukraine protect its own borders when our own borders are wide open?”
This is an argument that resonates well with conservative sections of America today.
President Trump sees opportunity in chaos
But Democrats saw this as an unacceptable conflation of two different agendas that endangered Ukraine’s victory over Russia and European security.
Still, they faced it head-on.
President Biden and the Democratic Party have launched the most conservative policy yet on America’s southern border. It primarily addressed Republican concerns.
They were prepared to pass a sweeping “Southern Border–Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan” package through Congress.
This is where raw politics comes into play.
Republican politicians on Capitol Hill rejected the Democratic internal border proposal they wanted.
why? Because Trump urged them to refuse.
He even threatened to end the careers of Republicans who voted in favor of border policies.
Trump and his allies recognized that a chaotic southern border would help him.
If Biden solves the border, he will get credit for his work. That’s no longer an option for Mr. Trump as he seeks to beat Mr. Biden in the November election.
And with overwhelming power over conservative politicians in the House of Representatives, he succeeded in blocking the southern border bill.
The whole package fell apart.
“Don’t be cheered on by President Putin.”
Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and the security of America’s southern border are both at risk, victims of raw politics.
This forced Democrats to return to their original plan of not conflating domestic borders with foreign spending. So they forced a vote on the Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan bill on their own.
Today, the bill passed the Senate (the upper chamber of Congress), populated on the right by traditional Republicans who are not pro-Trump.
The question now is what Trump’s foot soldiers in the House will do.
The words of the Republican traditionalist giant echo across the hall from the Senate to the House.
2012 presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney is not a fan of Donald Trump.
He warned his fellow Republicans: “I know that shock jocks and online agitators have infuriated many people far from my party. But if your position is backed by Vladimir Putin, , it’s time to reconsider your position.”
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