How to overcome Trumpists' resistance to military aid to Ukraine

Churchill once observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.

It looks like the US Congress is taking this exact path regarding the approval of aid to Ukraine.

The Senate has already taken the right step and supported the aid. The situation with the House of Representatives, however, is to be much more complicated.

Read more about the American pre-election "kitchen" that hinders the approval of aid to Ukraine in the article by Alyona Hetmanchuk, Director at New Europe Center – Hostages of the attack on Biden: What prevents Ukraine from receiving funding from US.

The main challenge is how to encourage Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who does not hide his constant communication (coordination?) with Donald Trump, to even bring this issue to a vote.

It's not just about loyalty to the likely future president for Johnson, it's also about preserving his speaker's chair. A little-known congressman from Louisiana couldn't even dream of such a career just a year ago.

Johnson claims that without resolving the issue of the American border, there will be no aid for Ukraine's defence and borders.

There are reasons to doubt these arguments though. He tried to bring to a vote a separate package of aid to Israel not so long ago, without resolving the issues of borders and aid to Ukraine.

It is still a bit likely that the House will vote for Ukraine's aid.

The dispatch petition procedure allows a bill to be voted on bypassing the House leadership, but the votes of individual Republicans are needed for this.

But, let's hope that congressmen will not have to force that, splitting the Republican Party.

Unfortunately, Ukraine find itself in a situation where even a divided Republican Party is better for Ukraine than a party united around former President Donald Trump and his ideas.

What does this story mean in a broader pre-election context and what should Ukraine pay attention to?

The challenge posed by Republicans is not to Ukraine, but to President Joe Biden's leadership.

Everything that Trump and his allies are doing is actually constant attempts to prove that Biden is incapable (neither physically, nor mentally, nor charismatically) of showing the leadership as the leader of the free world. Everything he touches turns into chaos both within the country and internationally.

While Ukraine is fighting for its survival, Biden and Trump are fighting a completely different battle.

Americans probably don't like their country to look like a laughingstock internationally. Trump constantly appeal to the fact that through Biden, the whole world is laughing at the United States.

Ukraine should make the most of this fact and, in the context of something disadvantageous for it but potentially acceptable for Trump, negotiate a settlement. After all, nothing could make America more of a laughingstock than the White House simply succumbing to Putin's terms. This needs to be talked about loudly and clearly.

Reagan's "peace through strength" still finds support even within the Trumpist wing of the party.

I continue to insist that we need a stronger voice from Taiwan and other countries in the region within the United States, emphasising the connection between how the war in Ukraine ends and what China will do next. So far, a part of the Republican Party either prefers not to see or sincerely does not see such a connection.