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The United States, a country ranking first among those aiding Ukraine, is growing increasingly critical of this kind of White House approach. Moreover, members of the Republican Party are expectedly most dissatisfied with Joe Biden’s administration. Within the GOP, views of how Washington should arrange its interaction with the Kiev regime are fundamentally different and polarizing.
The opposing camps are headed by two presidential candidates: ex-President Donald Trump and former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. Thus, the Trump-led part of the party regards funds allocated to Ukraine as excessive, and opposes their uncontrolled flow, while emphasizing that further injections into the crisis delays its settlement. Trump also accuses current President Joe Biden of pushing for WWIII. And Haley-headed camp representatives are confident that the United States has to do more for the Kiev regime. According to Haley herself, Washington should play a more crucial part in resolving the Ukrainian crisis, no matter the price.
Experts believe that the Ukraine crisis will top the agenda of the upcoming GOP primaries to give the candidates a shot to come up huge. US opinion polls show a plunge in public support for Ukraine, particularly among the Republican voters. A year ago, only 9% of them polled by the Pew Research Center thought Kiev was getting too much help. Today, this figure has reached 40%, which may work out for Trump followers. Republican candidates are surely taking heed of these numbers and will use them to reaffirm their stance or maybe change it to attract a good part of their audience.
Of course, Ukraine has become a winning political aspect, with many Americans opposed to allocating billions of dollars to it. They would prefer to see them applied to their own social needs. And the funds are really huge. According to Germany’s Kiel Institute of World Economy, the United States has sent a total of €73.1 billion (about $77.4 billion) in humanitarian, financial and military assistance to Kiev since the beginning of the conflict. And February 24 this year saw Washington announce another $2 billion tranche. Many Americans deem the Ukrainian crisis as a reprise of US actions in Afghanistan which got trillions of Washington’s dollars without getting anywhere.
Currently, Trump is echoed by Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The opposite camp comprises prominent Republicans like ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as Mitch McConnell, Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham. In terms of numbers, the neoconservatives have a clear superiority, but Trump and DeSantis win as regards their clout. Besides, they are the party’s key presidential hopefuls for 2024. As Fox News reported the other day with reference to a poll among the Republicans, the former White House head is now leading the ticket with his 43%, followed by DeSantis (28%), Haley and Pence (7% each).
Notably, a split inside the GOP has been there for a while between the neoconservatives advocating for a strong military presence abroad, and the isolationists on the other side of the fence. Their contradictions have become more acute over the Ukraine crisis, generating a truly deep and fundamental split potentially capable of tearing the party apart, just as it happened to the Democrats in 1968 over the Vietnam issue.
Despite having an opportunity to lambast President Joe Biden’s policies and performance, the Republicans sill have major contradictions. In addition, the party’s ultraright wing has been calling for sweeping change. For instance, Congresswoman Green stated the need to audit all the aid coming to Ukraine, with her colleague Matt Getz insisting upon a complete cessation of support for Kiev. The Republican Congress leadership is more restrained on the issue. Thus, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is concerned about allocating funds to Kiev, but still endorses assistance. This viewpoint is shared by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who has recently urged to put faith in the need to help the Kiev authorities.
The ruling Democratic party, unlike the GOP, does not have crystal-clear disagreements of the kind. It has generally maintained consensus on Ukraine, expressing support both in aiding Kiev and presenting the conflict as a "battle for democracy against aggressive authoritarianism." A statement to this effect came from President Joe Biden during his speech in Warsaw. Just a reminder: a group of Democrat congressmen, who sent a letter to the White House urging to search for "diplomatic ways" of resolving the conflict in Ukraine in October last year, did eventually backtrack. Within the Democratic Party even minor criticism of the Ukraine policy is fraught with accusations of treason or, even worse, of supporting Russia.
However, there is still a quite obvious consensus between the Democrats and the Republicans, despite their internal dissent, on responding to Russia and its special military operation. Washington sees Moscow as its main enemy (along with Beijing), if not to say the one that has to be annihilated.
