The United States Congress is facing a critical crossroads. On a bipartisan vote of 70 to 29, the Senate has passed a vital foreign aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.
Now, however, that bill faces a much higher hurdle in the Republican-controlled House, where Donald Trump has excited and exploited growing isolationist sentiment among his party’s core voters to amplify opposition to the measure.
Reasonable Republicans, part of what Sen. Todd Young of Indiana calls “the governing coalition,” know that passing the aid measure serves America’s national interest. It’s imperative that they find the strength and the will to defy Trump and provide the support that Ukraine and our other allies need so desperately.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012, epitomizes those reasonable Republicans: the pre-Trump party that actually worked with Democrats to meet America’s worldwide responsibilities. He told the Senate that the vote to “provide military weapons for Ukraine is the most important vote we will ever take as United States senators.”
“If we fail to help Ukraine, America will cease to be the arsenal of democracy. It will cease to be the leader of the free world,” Romney said. “If we fail to help Ukraine, we will be known not as our fathers and mothers were — the greatest generation — but as the worst generation.”
Trump has made it clear that he and his MAGA minions are not just threatening to weaken Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion, but to undermine the whole concept of a Western alliance that prevents the imperialism that ravaged Europe for centuries.
At a campaign rally, Trump recalled warning the president of a NATO country that he “would not protect” that ally against attack because they were not spending enough on their own defense. “In fact,” Trump said he told the foreign leader, “I would encourage (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want.”
This is a deeply dangerous idea that sends a signal of American indolence and indifference that can only embolden leaders in Moscow and elsewhere to indulge their ravenous territorial appetites. Resisting those appetites would cost America far more than the current aid package — and possibly even entangle American troops.
As NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned, Trump’s foolish words pose a grave threat to the alliance: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.”
The Economist echoed that alarm, saying of Trump and his congressional allies: “Their cynicism makes America weaker, and gives comfort to its enemies. … If they had set out to harm America and help Mr. Putin, they could hardly have done a better job.”
Few Republicans have the guts to join Romney in opposing Trump for their party’s nomination, but it’s heartening to see some of them stand up to his worst instincts. Sen. Jerry Moran, a staunch Kansas conservative, “choked up when he acknowledged that his constituents might not agree with his support for the aid package,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “but he felt it was a rare moment in his career when his vote truly mattered.”
“I believe in America first, but unfortunately ‘America first’ means we have to engage in the world,” Moran said. “It’s always easier, I suppose, to look the other way.”
Like Moran, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina admitted that many of his constituents oppose the aid package, but a true leader stands up to the lies and propaganda served up by Trump and his sycophants in the right-wing media.
“Some people around here — if they really are being driven just by the perceptions of their base, they should grow a spine and explain if they think it’s a tough vote,” Tillis said. “It’s not a tough vote for me. … For the ones who think it is, look at the consequences of us not getting it done.”
Growing a spine and resisting Trump are very difficult for most House Republicans, including the new and woefully weak speaker, Mike Johnson. As The New York Times reports, “There are efforts underway to go around Johnson and pass the bill through a Democratic-led discharge petition,” a rarely used maneuver that would force a floor vote on the bill if a majority demands one.
But spines are necessary. Trump’s opposition to the aid measure puts America last, not first. There’s an old cliche that says, “The whole world is watching,” but this time, it’s true.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at [email protected]. Send comments to [email protected].
