I apologize for making it so hard for you to see the whole article by googling the quote.
Separately:
"For months, it seemed the road to unlocking the Ukraine security funding gridlock in Congress ran through Mar-a-Lago, with former President
Donald Trump long
skeptical of more aid for Kyiv. Already about half of House Republicans had indicated they would oppose more support, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) couldn’t afford a jailbreak.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had railed on the campaign trail about the billions of dollars the U.S. gives to foreign countries while problems continue to mount at home. As he grew more vocal in his opposition to U.S. assistance to Kyiv, support was also
deteriorating among GOP voters, polls showed.
Trump’s objections had already helped sink support for
a bipartisan border deal linked to Ukraine earlier this year, and his stance was seen as putting the new Ukraine-aid effort at risk as well. Ukraine proponents on Capitol Hill feared that one bad-mouth social-media post from the former president could tank the whole thing.
But
some strategic outreach by Republican senators, a high-profile visit by Johnson and a small but politically significant change to the package helped convince Trump of the case for the Ukraine measure, according to people familiar with the former president’s thinking. That cleared the way for Johnson to move ahead with the bill without sparking the powerful former president’s ire,
passing the bill through the House on Saturday.
The House voted 311 to 112 to approve the Ukraine aid, with one Republican voting present. It was backed by all Democrats but slightly less than half of Republicans. The bill contains $60 billion related to Ukraine, with much of the funding going to U.S. defense contractors or the Defense Department to offset weapons and supplies that have already been provided to Ukraine.
A key change in the House bill was to make $9.5 billion for economic aid in the form of forgivable loans, not grants, to align with an idea Trump floated months earlier. Is that clear enough, BC?
The Democratic-run Senate had passed a similar bill in February, but it languished in the House, where Johnson has a razor-thin majority and a large contingent of Ukraine skeptics. With Ukraine running short of supplies,
some proponents had seized on the loan idea to get Trump on board.
A group of senators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.), and Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.), held joint phone calls, first among themselves to strategize, and then with Trump, after he had floated first the idea of making Ukraine aid into a loan. “
We should never give money anymore without the hope of a payback, or without ‘strings’ attached,” Trump posted on social media in February.” The U.S. “should be ‘stupid’ no longer!” he said in the all-caps message
The House’s $95 billion aid package includes support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. ‘The House has made many strong improvements to the Senate bill,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
The lawmakers’ plan, according to people familiar with the outreach, was to expand on the idea of the loan, and make it Trump’s idea, so that he would embrace it. Trump, officials said, was open to the idea—so long as the U.S. is guaranteed something in return. "
justthenews.com
news.gallup.com
