There are only nine months until the presidential election, but Donald Trump's influence is already being felt in concrete terms: The former president, through his allies in Congress, is threatening to stop all future American aid to Ukraine this week.
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The ax fell just minutes after the text, the result of months of negotiations in the Senate, was made available to the public.
The bill, which includes $60 billion for Kiev, $14 billion for Israel and reform of the American migration system, was “stillborn,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close friend of Donald Trump.
“Terrible bill”
Not to mention Democratic President Joe Biden supporting the project or urging Congress to “pass it quickly.” In these negotiations, his predecessor and likely rival in the presidential election has the final say.
Without the support of House Republicans, most of whom are loyal to Donald Trump, the text has nowhere to go.
To pass this important bill, it must be approved by both houses of Congress. Democrats have the majority in the Senate, but Republicans have control in the House of Representatives.
Two years into a stalemate war — and more than $110 billion already released by Congress — many Republicans are demanding not to award a single cent more to Ukraine.
They are largely following the lead of Donald Trump, who claims that if re-elected in November he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours” — without really explaining how.
On Monday morning, the former leader did it again.
“Don’t be STUPID!!!,” the Republican candidate shouted at his party’s elected officials, believing that “only an idiot or a Democrat from the radical left would vote for this terrible bill.”
Beyond this simple text, the entire future of American aid to Ukraine is in jeopardy.
The text presented on Sunday was considered one of the few that was likely to be adopted with votes from both parties. The scope for maneuver before the US presidential election in November now appears to be tiny, if not non-existent.
Last installment released in December
Since the start of the conflict, the Kremlin has been betting on a decline in Western aid, and any hesitation by Kiev's allies reinforces Russia's belief that its bet will work.
The United States, by far Ukraine's main military supporter, released its final tranche of available military aid to Ukraine in late December.
They have been fighting for several months to release new funds, as President Joe Biden and his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have urged.
The last two visits of the Ukrainian head of state to Washington in September and December 2023 were unsuccessful in this regard.
Aware that the sense of urgency in Washington has waned since the war began in 2022, President Biden in October asked Congress to match his request for help for Ukraine with another for Israel, a United States ally war with Hamas.
But also about a drastic reform of the USA's migration policy, a politically hot topic that is even more important in the middle of an election year.