‘We're not buying it': Trump ties Ukraine aid to America First
Even as Trump wants to up the pressure on Moscow, bucking the isolationist wing of the MAGA movement, he is insisting that this latest move aligns with his 'America First' strategy and fits into a decades-long view that America has been ripped off by allies and that Europe, in particular, has gotten a free ride on defense.
Trump, during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday, exaggerated how much money the U.S. has already spent on aid to Ukraine and emphasized that Europeans would finally pay their fair share.
'We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they're going to be paying for it,' Trump said, referencing 'very rich' European allies. 'They feel very strongly about it, and we feel strongly about it too, but we're in for a lot of money, and we just, we don't want to do [it] any more.'
The Pentagon's top policy official, Elbridge Colby, posted his support on X soon after the announcement, emphasizing the 'America First' aspect.
'Central to President Trump's common sense, America First message is that our alliances have to be fair and equitable for them to be sustainable,' Colby wrote. 'This is eminently reasonable but was treated for many years as heresy. Yet now with the historic NATO commitment we see that it can work — and will leave not only Americans but our European allies better off.'
But two senior administration officials, granted anonymity to discuss the president's turnabout on Ukraine, said Trump's response is largely a reaction to Putin's indifference to attempts to broker a peace deal.
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Associated Press
24 minutes ago
- Associated Press
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27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
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