Why Trump Didn t Sink Mike Johnson s Ukraine- Bill

Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
Story by Vivian Salama
04/22/24


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Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
© Provided by The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—For months, it seemed the road to unlocking the Ukraine security funding gridlock in Congress ran through Mar-a-Lago, with former President Donald Trump long skeptical of more aid for Kyiv. Already about half of House Republicans had indicated they would oppose more support, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) couldn’t afford a jailbreak.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had railed on the campaign trail about the billions of dollars the U.S. gives to foreign countries while problems continue to mount at home. As he grew more vocal in his opposition to U.S. assistance to Kyiv, support was also deteriorating among GOP voters, polls showed.

Trump’s objections had already helped sink support for a bipartisan border deal linked to Ukraine earlier this year, and his stance was seen as putting the new Ukraine-aid effort at risk as well. Ukraine proponents on Capitol Hill feared that one bad-mouth social-media post from the former president could tank the whole thing.
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Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
© Provided by The Wall Street Journal
But some strategic outreach by Republican senators, a high-profile visit by Johnson and a small but politically significant change to the package helped convince Trump of the case for the Ukraine measure, according to people familiar with the former president’s thinking. That cleared the way for Johnson to move ahead with the bill without sparking the powerful former president’s ire, passing the bill through the House on Saturday.

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The House voted 311 to 112 to approve the Ukraine aid, with one Republican voting present. It was backed by all Democrats but slightly less than half of Republicans. The bill contains $60 billion related to Ukraine, with much of the funding going to U.S. defense contractors or the Defense Department to offset weapons and supplies that have already been provided to Ukraine.

A key change in the House bill was to make $9.5 billion for economic aid in the form of forgivable loans, not grants, to align with an idea Trump floated months earlier.

The Democratic-run Senate had passed a similar bill in February, but it languished in the House, where Johnson has a razor-thin majority and a large contingent of Ukraine skeptics. With Ukraine running short of supplies, some proponents had seized on the loan idea to get Trump on board.

A group of senators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.), and Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.), held joint phone calls, first among themselves to strategize, and then with Trump, after he had floated first the idea of making Ukraine aid into a loan.

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Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
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“We should never give money anymore without the hope of a payback, or without ‘strings’ attached,” Trump posted on social media in February.” The U.S. “should be ‘stupid’ no longer!” he said in the all-caps message.

The lawmakers’ plan, according to people familiar with the outreach, was to expand on the idea of the loan, and make it Trump’s idea, so that he would embrace it. Trump, officials said, was open to the idea—so long as the U.S. is guaranteed something in return.

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Ukraine occupies a complicated position in Trump world. The former president has for years criticized Ukraine as a “corrupt” country, and he notoriously was impeached by the House for leaning on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into the Biden family. Trump has often complained about U.S. support for Ukraine, describing the country to European leaders as “your Ukraine” and “part of Russia,” U.S. and foreign officials said.

But those familiar with Trump’s thinking said he has been open to hearing from various officials who have both warned him of the potential consequences of a Russian victory and the opportunities a second Trump administration might have to broker a peace agreement. Those lobbying him said it wasn’t so much that they needed him to agree; they just needed him to accept it.

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Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
Why Donald Trump Didn’t Sink Mike Johnson’s Ukraine-Aid Bill
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Ukraine, Trump and the senators discussed, is rich with minerals and has the potential of being a rich country able to pay its debts back, people familiar with the discussions said. Payback is contingent on defeating Russia, since most of those resources are in occupied territories, they said.

Graham, in an interview, played down any evolution in Trump’s thinking on foreign assistance, and stressed that he has always embraced the concept of collateral. Graham pointed to Trump’s past comments about Iraq, when he said the U.S. should “take the oil,” saying that was never intended literally, but rather, as a form of collateral. “Trump’s foreign policy has always been about leverage—what is in America’s interest,” he said. “He’s trying to get Europeans to do more but the loan concept goes way back to Iraq.”

Graham said he floated the loan idea to Zelensky while visiting Kyiv last month, saying it is “the most likely path forward.” Speaking to “PBS NewsHour” last week, Zelensky said his country would be open to assistance structured as a loan, though it wasn’t his preference.

“We wanted another way to get this money last year, but, for today, it doesn’t matter. We need to survive, and we need to defend our people, and that’s why your decision, the ball is on your field. Yes, please, just make [a] decision,” he said.

Johnson, who visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach earlier this month, has called standing up for Ukraine and passing aid for Israel and Taiwan as part of a broader fight against Russia, Iran and China. His decision was also driven by his religious convictions, people familiar with his thinking said.

Johnson had called the loan idea “a common sense suggestion.” Johnson has also played to Trump’s ambitions, saying a stable Ukraine would be critical to a successful second term. Trump is “the one who has the strength to go in and negotiate a peace in this. But not if Russia rolls through the country,” Johnson said on the “Ben Shapiro Show” last week.

Trump’s stance was key. Standing alongside Johnson last week, the former president didn’t outwardly reject an aid package for Ukraine, and instead said that they were looking at options.

“We’re thinking about making it the form of a loan instead of just a gift,” he said. He also backed Johnson while acknowledging his predicament. “I think he’s doing a very good job, he’s doing about as good as you’re going to do,” he said.

In recent days, Trump dined with Poland’s right-wing President Andrzej Duda, whom Trump described as a friend. Those familiar with Duda and Trump’s relationship said that they bonded with Trump over Duda’s understanding of Trump’s transactional approach to negotiations. Duda, in an interview ahead of his meeting, expressed confidence that the Ukraine bill would pass.

In a social-media post the next day, Trump backed the idea that Ukraine’s security is a U.S. national-security interest, while again lashing out at European allies, who for years he has painted as freeloaders for what he sees as insufficient spending on defense.

“As everyone agrees, Ukrainian Survival and Strength should be much more important to Europe than to us, but it is also important to us! GET MOVING EUROPE!” he wrote Thursday.

Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com