Diverging Support of Foreign Aid Bill Suggests a Tale of Two GOPs

A tale of two GOPs is unfolding at Capitol Hill today, as congressional Republicans, split along an emerging generational divide, are voicing diverging views on aiding America’s allies. The 22 Senate Republicans who joined Democrats in passing a $95.3 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel, and Free China say that the stakes have never been higher to secure America and the world order from totalitarian regimes.Yet this establishment wing, led by Senator McConnell, is quickly aging and being replaced by a younger, President Trump-led wing, or as the Sun’s editorial board puts it, “an emerging Appeasement Caucus.” The 26 Republicans who voted against the foreign aid bill have an average age of 58.78, more than a decade younger than the 22 Republicans who voted yes, who average 68.95 years old. Nearly every Republican senator younger than the age of 55 voted no.They join a chorus of conservative critics who are terming foreign aid anti-American, and calling for the resignation of elected officials within their own party who support it. “America Last” is how Senator Schmitt criticized the pledge of $60 billion to President Zelensky while the crisis at the U.S.’s southern border worsens. Noting the generational divide on the bill among senators, he wrote in a post on X, “Things are changing just not fast enough.” The foreign aid package narrowly passed through the Senate thanks to support from GOP senators who have a record of backing bipartisan measures during their time in Congress. They include Senator Romney, who is bucking Mr. Trump’s America-first foreign policy. Now, the bill faces in the GOP-controlled House an uphill battle to overcome skepticism of Ukraine and the influence of the presumptive Republican nominee for president.The bill also faces opposition from voters who say it suggests a betrayal of domestic priorities. “Taxation without representation,” a slogan of the American revolutionaries against George III, is being invoked against foreign aid. “Taxpayers are funding foreign governments without any say in how the funds are used,” a conservative political commentator, Matt Walsh, says on X. “This country was literally formed to stop that sort of thing.”“You didn’t really care about America’s border. It’s secondary to Ukraine’s border,” the former deputy assistant secretary of the interior, Jeremy Carl, comments on Senator Cornyn’s statement on X that supported the passage of the bill in the Senate. Thousands of users voiced their ire in the comments, calling Mr. Cornyn, who advocates for bolstering border security, a “traitor,” a “democrat,” and “anti-American” and urging him to quit Congress. Just as quickly as Republicans are jumping on the anti-aid bandwagon are they, in turn, being derided as sycophants to Mr. Trump. A longtime defense hawk, Senator Graham, voted against funding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan even as he described their ongoing wars as “extremely important national security imperatives.” The senator cited Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the supplemental aid package be a loan to the countries in question.That “changes the paradigm of how we help others,” he says in a statement on X. A meme circulated in the comments of that post replaced his justification for voting “no” with the simple phrase, “TRUMP SAID NO.” Then again, opponents of increased aid to Ukraine are accused of being sympathetic to President Putin.Yet much of the $95 billion package would be dedicated to American arsenals and Red Sea operations, including $2 billion worth of weaponry and training for Pacific partners, which would help defend Taiwan in the event of a Communist Chinese attack. The Wall Street Journal writes that if Speaker Johnson stops a vote on the bill, faced with dwindling confidence within his own party, “the world will absorb the lesson that the U.S. is unprepared to provide weapons for allies willing to fight in their own defense against a marauding dictator, as the Ukrainians have done with valor and at great cost.”

Diverging Support of Foreign Aid Bill Suggests a Tale of Two GOPs

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