The trial against him has apparently narrowed his field of vision, writes Financial Times US editor Edward Luce
Look closely and you will see how the Republican Party is torn by contradictions. The occasion was the several months late vote in Congress (subsequently also in the Senate – note trans.) of aid to Ukraine in the amount of 61 billion dollars. Republicans were almost evenly split. The pro-con divide was about more than Ukraine; it represents uncompromising views of the world. Not even Donald Trump, sitting bored in an unwelcoming New York courtroom, can bridge the gulf between globalists and anti-globalists in the Republican Party, writes Financial Times US editor Edward Luce.
They speak of each other as enemies. “It’s an absolute honor to be in Congress, but I’m serving alongside some real scumbags,” said Tony Gonzalez, R-Texas, before naming his “neo-Nazi” rival for the post, who is backed by some of his House colleagues. the representatives. “These people used to walk around in white hoods at night, and now they’re doing it during the day.” Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, is almost as direct: “Much of the hesitation and short-sightedness that delayed the vote was based on sheer fiction,” he said of Ukraine’s funding.
The last and most significant Republican action was prompted by an unexpected display of courage. The Speaker of the House and a staunch Republican, Mike Johnson, had a catharsis when US intelligence outlined to him the dire fate that awaited Ukraine if the House did not vote for aid. However, Ukraine’s unexpected savior continues to deny the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. Another routine conspiracy theorist, Newt Gingrich — a former Republican speaker of the House in the 1990s — urged him to support Ukraine no matter what. “Brave people die only once,” Gingrich said. “A coward dies a hundred times.”
Johnson took these words to heart. Price could be a challenge to his presidency (the far-right faction of the Republicans may call for his removal, as they did with his predecessor Kevin McCarthy.) Even more infuriating to Johnson’s critics is that his change of heart was prompted by “deep state” intelligence. Trumpists believe that the CIA, FBI, and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are sources of globalist propaganda. This makes Johnson a traitor not only to their core foreign policy cause, that Ukraine should submit to Russia; his move also attacks their Washington narrative. If Johnson believes the CIA on Ukraine, he might take other national security information seriously.
Yet the vote for Ukraine was only a weak guide to future behavior. Trump seems to have let it happen in a fit of distraction. He had spent the previous four days trying to stay awake as lawyers argued over jury selection for the trial against him (related to the cover-up of an alleged sex affair through a payment before the 2016 election that was not covered (in his financial statements) Part of Trump’s fatigue undoubtedly stemmed from his late-night social media activity, which includes alleged violations of a court order to keep him silent. The fact that Trump has been banned from using his smartphone in court and has been repeatedly told to sit down can’t help but rub off on him. It should last another six weeks. No family member has yet joined him in court. Melania Trump, the former and possible future first lady, is unlikely to go anywhere near a stage where Stormy Daniels (the porn star with whom Trump denies having an affair) is summoned.
Regardless of the trial’s outcome and its effect on public opinion, Trump will make a furious comeback when it’s over. But the vote for Ukraine was an important precedent. Against the fiction that some of the aid was classified as a loan, Trump gave Joe Biden and Ukraine — the two names that span his impeachment proceedings and 2020 election defeat — a timely respite. The House also passed a bill authorizing Biden to confiscate $6 billion of Russia’s frozen reserves for the benefit of Ukraine. Most of Russia’s remaining $300 billion in foreign assets are in Europe. The Kremlin was not happy. “We fully expected this,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said with a poker face. Putin’s predecessor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, called for a new US civil war that would “lead to the ignominious collapse of the 21st century evil empire.”
Republicans are much more likely to sink into their own civil war. Almost half of their caucus in the House – 101 voted for, 112 against – are now tied to positions far beyond the Ukrainian battlefield. Trump, in his tacit assent, is now strangely associated with these positions as well. The idea that Biden conspired with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to harm Trump’s 2020 election performance is now considered illogical. So is the idea that Putin poses an exaggerated risk or is actually a friend. If Ukraine was worth another $61 billion, how could it possibly be a threat to US democracy? Perhaps the courtroom has so narrowed Trump’s field of vision that he has failed to understand what he agreed to outside it, Luce concludes.
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