Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Sunday that Donald Trump deserves credit for the House passing additional aid to Ukraine.
On Saturday, the House approved a $95 billion package of foreign aid bills that would provided an additional $60 billion in funding for Ukraine in its defense against the unprovoked Russian invasion.
“There’s a loan component to it. This would not have passed without President Trump. I want to thank the House Speaker and Hakeem Jeffries working together in a bipartisan fashion to give weapons to Ukraine to fight a fight that matters to us,” Graham said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. “And President Trump has created a loan component to this package that gives us leverage down the road.”
The bill designates about $10 billion of the Ukraine funding as a loan to appease some Republican members after Trump suggested the idea to Johnson when the two met at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
However, even Republicans are skeptical that Ukraine will be able to repay the loan.
“Turning Ukraine aid into a forgivable loan doesn’t change a thing,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) wrote in a post on X/ Twitter. “Even if we couldn’t forgive it, does anyone think that there is any indication Ukraine is going to be in any position in the next decade to pay back billions upon billons of dollars of loans? This is a joke. I think its disrespectful to assume the American people are this stupid to buy this, because I don’t think they are.”
Trump has previously promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours if he is re-elected in November. He never explained how he plans to accomplish this, but after meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Trump’s plan is to “not give a single penny” to support the Ukrainian effort opposing the invading Russian army.
Trump “will not give a single penny to the Ukrainian-Russian war, therefore the war will end” Orbán said, according to Reuters.
“If the Americans do not give money and weapons, and also the Europeans, then this war will be over,” Orbán said, adding: “If the Americans do not give money the Europeans are unable to finance this war on their own, and then the war will end.”
