The presidential election is only nine months away, but Donald Trump’s influence is already being felt very concretely: the former president is threatening, via his allies in Congress, to bury this week all future American aid to the Ukraine.
The ax fell just minutes after the text, the result of long months of negotiations in the Senate, was revealed to the public.
The bill, which provides both 60 billion US dollars (81 billion CA$) for kyiv and 14 billion (19 billion CA$) for Israel. It also contains a reform of the American migration system, a hot topic of the electoral campaign.
Republicans have been calling for months for a firmer policy in the face of large numbers of migrants arriving at the southern border.
The text presented is the “toughest” in decades on immigration, assure the Democrats. But according to Republicans, it does not go far enough.
It is therefore “stillborn”, has already decided Mike Johnson, the leader of the House of Representatives, a close friend of Donald Trump.
Especially since the ex-president does not wish to offer a political victory to his Democratic rival for the presidential election in November, Joe Biden.
Never mind that Democratic President Joe Biden supports the plan, or that he urged Congress to “pass it quickly.” In these negotiations, it is his predecessor and probable rival in the presidential election who has the last word. Because without the support of Republicans in the House, most of them loyal to Donald Trump, the text cannot actually go anywhere.
“Horrible bill”
To pass, this major bill must be approved by both houses of Congress. Democrats have a majority in the Senate, but Republicans are in control in the House.
Two years after the start of a bogged-down war – and more than 110 billion dollars already released by Congress – many Republicans are calling for no longer validating a single cent for Ukraine.
They are mostly following directives from Donald Trump, who claims that if he were re-elected in November, he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours” — without really explaining how.
Monday morning, he repeated it, saying that “only an idiot, or a radical left-wing Democrat, would vote for this horrible border bill.”
And to demand that the subject of immigration and that of aid to Ukraine as well as to Israel be the subject of separate texts – the complete opposite of what the conservatives have been asking for until now.
” Need help “
Enough to fuel the frustration of Joe Biden, who finds survey after survey that when it comes to immigration, his rival has the ascendancy among voters.
“We don’t have enough (border) agents. We don’t have enough (immigration) judges. We need help. Why don’t they help me? » he asked Monday, about the Republicans.
The heated debate around the border almost makes us forget that the entire future of American aid to Ukraine is in danger.
The text unveiled Sunday was seen as one of the few likely to be adopted with votes from both parties. The window to act before November now appears tiny, if not non-existent.
Since the start of the conflict, the Kremlin has been banking on the decline in Western aid, and any hesitation from kyiv’s allies reinforces Russia’s belief that its bet will be a winner.
The United States, by far the primary military supporter of Ukraine, released its last tranche of available military aid for Ukraine at the end of December.
They have been struggling for several months to release new funds, insistently demanded by President Joe Biden and his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader’s last two visits to Washington, in September and December 2023, were, in this regard, unsuccessful.