Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote Friday that any vote on new funding for aid to Ukraine and strengthening the border with Mexico is currently “dead.”
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This comment comes at a time when, according to American media, former president and White House candidate Donald Trump is putting pressure on elected Republicans to block the budget requests of his rival, Democratic President Joe Biden.
“If the rumors about the contents of the bill (currently being debated in the Senate, the other chamber of Congress, editor's note) are true, it would be stillborn before it is even presented to the House of Representatives,” assured Mike Johnson in a letter to American congressmen.
This letter is a further negative signal about the outcome of the already very complicated negotiations in the American Congress, which is made up of the Senate, which currently has a Democratic majority, and the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Republicans.
Joe Biden is calling for a budget increase of around $100 billion to meet urgent needs, primarily aid to Ukraine, to which the United States is the leading supplier of military equipment.
Under pressure from Republicans, the topic is now being linked in discussions with immigration policy, a central issue in Donald Trump's election campaign.
The former Republican president accuses his successor of negligence regarding the arrival of migrants at the border with Mexico.
While a compromise in the Senate seemed possible, that prospect suddenly disappeared this week, and the American press sees it as the handiwork of the 77-year-old tycoon, the heavy favorite in the Republican primaries, who maintains a firm grip on the party. .
The last shipment of American military aid to Ukraine was announced on December 27, and the White House has repeatedly said there would be no more without a budget extension.