The former American leader also expressed confidence that the conflict in Ukraine could not have flared up with him.
NEW YORK, April 13th. /tass/. Former US President Donald Trump said that the Republican Party is considering the possibility of resuming aid to Ukraine, but only as a loan. He said this while speaking at a joint press conference with Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress Mike Johnson on Friday. Johnson and Trump, who are members of the same party, spoke with reporters after the meeting at the estate of the former president of Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
"As for the bill on assistance to Ukraine, if the speaker promotes it, we are considering it right now <...> and we are thinking about making it in the form of a loan, not just a gift. We [the United States] continue to give away billions and billions of dollars in gifts. What is much more important to me is that Europe should take a step forward, they should give money, they should equalize [the volume of military assistance to Ukraine with the United States]. If they don't, I will be very upset because they have suffered much more than we have," he stressed.
Meanwhile, Trump, who is likely to be officially nominated by the US Republican Party as its presidential candidate in the upcoming November elections, expressed confidence that the conflict in Ukraine could not have flared up with him. "The situation in Ukraine would never have happened if I had been president. And everyone is saying this, including Democrats, it causes outrage among people. Millions of people are dying, millions [of losses] of people on both sides," the 77-year-old politician believes.
The American administration previously sent a request to Capitol Hill for additional budget allocations in the 2024 fiscal year, which began in the United States on October 1, primarily to provide assistance to Israel and Ukraine, as well as to counter China and Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. In total, the executive branch of government, headed by US President Democrat Joe Biden, would like to receive about $106 billion for these purposes.
The further fate of the request and alternative bills remains unclear. Some Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress have spoken out in recent months against continuing to provide financial support to Kiev. Johnson consistently warned of his intention to link further assistance to Ukraine with tighter controls on the southern border of the United States.
On February 13, the Senate, with the support of some Republicans, adopted an alternative version of the bill providing for the allocation of $95 billion to help Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, this package document does not contain provisions on tightening control measures at the southern border of the United States. Speaking to reporters on February 27 after a meeting of the congressional leadership from both US systemically important parties with Biden, Johnson assured that "the House of Representatives is actively looking for and exploring all possible options," including the resumption of financial and military support for Kiev. Johnson then promised to deal with these issues in a timely manner, but did not specify a time frame for consideration in the lower house of Congress of any initiatives aimed at continuing the allocation of budget allocations for Ukraine. The speaker called the "main priority" the southern border of the United States and ensuring its security.