Take it from someone who has now criticized four presidents in a row for the drift of America’s Ukraine policy.
People who define their politics by Donald Trump — pro or against — are under a similar delusion that Donald Trump opposes funding for Ukraine. The writers at the Bulwark and Marjorie Taylor Greene both agree on this, and they orient their positions accordingly.
That’s why I’ve read tributes from the Bulwark this week that Mike Johnson defied Donald Trump on the most important issue facing America (lol).
But it’s clearly not true. Once Mike Johnson started talking about the aid as a “loan,” Donald Trump gave Johnson the go-ahead. And then he took it to the floor. And since then, Donald Trump has twice endorsed Johnson as leader of the congressional Republicans.
Trump once threatened to delay some appropriated aid to Ukraine, seeking to get a more transactional relationship with Zelensky. But he had no problem sending more weapons over when Congress ordered him to do so.
There are some issues on which Trumpy populists far outrun Trump himself. Rabid support for Ukraine, like “trusting the science bureaucracies” during Covid, has become a kind of political identity badge for anti-populists. We could see this in the polls during the primary where the people most closed to Trump were by far the strongest supporters of Ukraine and the candidacy of Nikki Haley.
But Trump was never as “Trumpy” as his base. And that’s why he never fired Fauci. And why he hasn’t abandoned Ukraine.
Take it from someone who has now criticized four presidents in a row for the drift of America’s Ukraine policy. Trump is not reliably on my side. At all.