Bernd Debusmann jr
BBC News
See: Trump attacks Russia with secondary tariffs in 50 days without a peace agreement
Some conservative members of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement responded angrily to the president’s plan to sell arms to NATO, claiming it was a betrayal of his promise to end his involvement in foreign wars.
On Monday, Trump sent arms to Ukraine via NATO, and said that if the contract to end the war was not achieved in 50 days, he would threaten Russia with more tariffs.
Majorie Taylor Green of the Republican Congress, Trump’s key ally, and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, were among those who criticized the decision, and Bannon tells his podcast listeners that Ukraine is a “European War.”
The White House emphasizes that Europe will pay for US arms.
In an interview with The New York Times, Green, an isolated member of Georgia’s Congress, one of Green-Capitol Hill’s most loyal Trump supporters, said the move was at odds with what voters promised on the campaign trail.
“It’s not just Ukraine. It’s all a general foreign war, and a lot of foreign aid,” she said. “This is what we exercised. This is what I promised to my district as well. This is what everyone voted for, and I believe we have to maintain the course.”
Trump tried to emphasize that weapons will be paid instead of being given as direct aid, saying on Monday, “We don’t buy it, we’ll manufacture it, and they’re going to pay for it.”
However, in a rare public disagreement with the president, Greene has scepticized that US taxpayers will ultimately avoid paying for the costs and in a social media post he will criticize “backdoor deals through NATO.”
“Without a shadow of doubt, our taxes are being used,” she told The New York Times, claiming that indirect costs, such as US training missions and contributions to NATO, qualify as US involvement.
“I said that at every assembly stage. There’s no more money for Ukraine. We want peace. We want peace for those people,” she said. “And what do you guess? People haven’t changed.”
“We still hate it.”
A former Trump campaign official spoke on condition of political anonymity, saying that Europe’s purchase of weapons “mitigates” anger from Trump isolationist supporters.
“But we still hate it,” the official said. “This is not our war, and escalation is not in America’s interest.”
“Ukraine is becoming very dangerous,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said on his Warroom podcast.
“It’s a European war. Let Europe deal with it,” he said. “They have resources. They have talent.”
“We are literally trying to arm people that we don’t have control,” Bannon said of Ukraine. “This is an old-fashioned war of crushing in the European floods, and we are dragged into it.”
EPA
Marjorie Taylor Green said he would arm Ukraine in opposition to “backdoor deals through NATO”
In a statement cited by Politico, White House assistant reporter Anna Kelly said Trump’s Magazine base was “not a panican like the media.”
“They trust Trump and know that this president is restoring peace through strength.”
The BBC contacted the White House for comment.
A White House official who spoke to Politico while anonymously opposed the president’s base’s opposition to his move. They pointed to one recent poll that suggests that nearly two-thirds of Trump voters support continuing to send arms to Ukraine.
Trump administration officials have also defended the president’s decision, with Elbridge Colby, who is under Defense Secretary Elbridge, writing that Trump’s “the first message for America is that our alliance must be fair and impartial.”
“This is very reasonable, but it has been treated as a heresy for many years,” he added. “With the still historic NATO commitment, we can see that it works.”
The recent commitment from NATO leaders to increase defense spending to 5% of economic production was praised by Trump supporters on Monday.
And in an exclusive interview with the BBC on Monday, hours after he met NATO Chief Mark Latte at the White House, Trump said the alliance is now “paying” for its own bill.
He confirmed his support for the organization’s common defense principles, saying he was “disappointed but not done” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The president said he believed the contract to end the war in Ukraine was on the cards with different Russia four times.
Listen: I’m with Putin “I’m disappointed, but it’s not over,” Trump tells the BBC
