Massachusetts rep: Fear of Trump keeps GOP firm against Ukraine aid

Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D) said the fear of former President Trump is the reason behind the GOP’s resistance to Ukraine aid in a clip posted Wednesday.

“This is good foreign policy,” Auchincloss said in an MSNBC clip he posted on social media Wednesday. “If we cut and run, it’ll be a disaster for our allies and for our overseas standing. And Republicans understand that, but they’re afraid of Donald Trump.”

Auchincloss also said that if the former president “fell down tomorrow and got a concussion and decided he was actually anti-Putin, pro-Ukraine, we would see a magical 180 in the House Republican Conference.”

Congress isn’t likely to pass a new package of aid for Ukraine before the final tranche of aid for the Eastern European country runs out at the end of the month. Despite President Biden wanting $61 billion in new aid for Ukraine, Congress is holding that aid up while it is trying to figure out a deal on border security.

Trump has a history of opposing more aid to Ukraine. In May 2022, he criticized lawmakers for their attempt to pass $40 billion in aid to the war-stricken country.

“The Democrats are sending another $40 billion to Ukraine, yet America’s parents are struggling to even feed their children,” Trump said in a statement issued through his Save America PAC.

He said “no one is talking about” the baby formula shortage that was happening at the time in the U.S., calling it “a national disgrace.”

“It is unthinkable that in the year 2022 American families are unable to get baby formulas for their children. Families whose children have serious allergies and require ‘elemental’ formula are in even more desperate and dire straits,” he added.