Writing for The Atlantic, journalist and historian of Central and Eastern Europe Anne Applebaum reflects on the Republicans House's refusal to vote on the Ukrainian aid package passed by the Senate, a bill that would also fund Taiwan, Israel, and humanitarian efforts in Gaza. One would have to go back to the 1930s and its original American Firsters to witness such a betrayal of long-term U.S. interests.
In the week after the failure of the border bill — another Republican betrayal, this time by the Senate — Applebaum writes that she "happened to meet a senior European Union official visiting Washington. He asked me if congressional Republicans [in the House] realized that a Russian victory in Ukraine would discredit the United States, weaken American alliances in Europe and Asia, embolden China, encourage Iran, and increase the likelihood of invasions of South Korea or Taiwan. Don’t they realize? Yes, I told him, they realize." They just don't care.
Applebaum then links to this one-minute, February 2022 video of Mike Johnson making an appearance on KTAL television of Shreveport, Louisiana, his home state. He was then serving on the House Armed Service Committee. He had been briefed on the Ukrainian situation, concluding that "this is a very dangerous, unstable time" but "the bigger problem is that it empowers other dictators, other terrorists and tyrants around the world because if they perceive that America is weak or unable to act decisively, then it invites aggression in many different ways." He added that the American people have a "direct interest" in supporting Ukraine.
Flash forward to 2024, when "Speaker" Johnson seemingly begins thinking there are no longer big or "bigger problems," no dangerous world threats or vital U.S. interests in Ukraine's survival as a free, democratic state. As Applebaum explained to the European Union official, that isn't really the case. The truth is that Johnson is terrified of Trump and terrified that he could lose his speakership. Her "European colleague shook his head, not because he didn’t believe me, but because it was so hard for him to hear."
With that major assist from Johnson and his Republican caucus, an ex-president is now undermining, in fact dictating, a sitting president's foreign policy. This is truly an American First; until Trump, ex-presidents stayed out of the way of sitting presidents and their policies.
Writes Applebaum: "Even if he never regains the White House," and "even if the funding for Ukraine ultimately passes, the damage [Trump] has done to all of America’s relationships is real."
The Atlantic journalist also notes that she talked with a member of the German Parliament when she attended the Munich Security Conference last month. "He fears Europe could someday be competing against three autocracies: 'Russia, China, and the United States.' When he said that, it was my turn to shake my head, not because I didn’t believe him, but because it was so hard to hear."
I'll leave it there. Any comment after "three autocracies" of "Russia, China, and the United States" would be wildly anticlimactic.
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