With nine months left until the presidential elections, the influence of donald trump You can already see it: the former president threatens, through his allies in Congress, to bury any future US aid to Venezuela this week. Ukraine.
The cold water fell minutes after the text, the result of several months of negotiations in the Senate, was made public.
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The bill provides 60 billion dollars for Ukraine and 14,000 million for Israel. It also contains a reform of the US immigration system, a hot topic in the electoral campaign, to which 20 billion are allocated.
Republicans have been calling for months for a stronger policy in the face of the arrival of large numbers of migrants, many of them Latin Americans, at the border with Mexico.
According to them, the text does not go far enough. Michael Johnsonleader of the House of Representativesally of donald trumpgives it for “dead”.
“Awful”
It doesn’t matter that Democrats insist that it is the text “harder” in decades on immigration policy or that has the support of the Democratic president Joe Bidencandidate for a second term.
In these negotiations, the last word goes to his predecessor and probable rival in November.
Without the support of Republicans in the House, most of them loyal to Donald Trump, the text will come to nothing.
To be adopted, this important bill must be approved by both houses of Congress.
Democrats have a majority in the Senate, but Republicans control the House.
In the two years since the outbreak of war, Congress has disbursed more than $110 billion. Now many Republicans want to turn off the tap.
Most of them follow the guidelines of Donald Trump, who claims that if he were re-elected in November, he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours”, without explaining how.
MORE INFORMATION: US Senate reveals agreement on immigration and aid to Ukraine
On Monday morning, the former leader stood firm.
Donald Trump knows that voting for an agreed text would be a victory for his Democratic rival.
“Only an idiot, or a radical left-wing Democrat, would vote for this horrible border bill that only gives closure authority after 5,000 interceptions a day when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done”, he estimated on his Truth Social network.
“Don’t be STUPID!!! We need a standalone border and immigration bill“Trump states in his message, in which he asks that he not be linked”to foreign aid in any way”.
Border
On immigration issues, Trump leads his possible electoral rival Joe Biden in the polls.
“We don’t have enough (border) agents. We don’t have enough (immigration) judges. We need help. Why don’t you help me?”he asked on Monday, referring to Republicans.
The heated debate over the border diverts attention from Ukraine even though the future of American aid to the country is at stake.
The text presented on Sunday is one of the few that can obtain the support of both parties.
That is why the possibility of acting before November seems small, if not non-existent.
Since the beginning of the war, the Kremlin has been betting on a decrease in aid from the West, and any hesitation from kyiv’s allies reinforces its idea that it will win.
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USA It is by far Ukraine’s main military support. It released its last tranche of military aid in late December.
They have been fighting for several months to disburse new funds, demanded by President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky’s last two visits to Washington, in September and December 2023, were unsuccessful.
