https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-2-2024
"Almost six months have passed since President Joe Biden asked Congress to
appropriate money for Ukraine in a national security supplemental bill. At
first, House Republicans said they would not pass such a bill without border
security. Then, when a bipartisan group of senators actually produced a border
security provision for the national security bill, they killed it, under orders
from former president Trump.
In February the Senate passed the national security supplemental bill with aid
for Ukraine without the border measures by a strong bipartisan vote of 70 to
29. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) cheered its passage, saying: “The national
security bill passed by the Senate is of profound importance to America’s
security.”
The measure would pass in the House by a bipartisan vote, but House speaker
Mike Johnson (R-LA) has refused to take it up, acting in concert with Trump.
On March 24, on
Washington Week, foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum
said: “Trump has decided that he doesn’t want money to go to Ukraine… It's
really an extraordinary moment; we have an out-of-power ex-president who is in
effect dictating American foreign policy on behalf of a foreign dictator or
with the interests of a foreign dictator in mind.”
On Thursday, March 28, Beth Reinhard, Jon Swaine, and Aaron Schaffer of the
Washington Post reported that Richard Grenell, an extremist who served as
Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, has been traveling around the
world to meet with far-right foreign leaders, “acting as a kind of shadow
secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging
Trump’s support and, at times, working against the current administration’s
policies.”
Grenell, the authors say, is openly laying the groundwork for a president who
will make common cause with authoritarian leaders and destroy partnerships with
democratic allies. Trump has referred to Grenell as “my envoy,” and the Trump
camp has suggested he is a frontrunner to become secretary of state if Trump is
reelected in 2024.
Applebaum was right: it is extraordinary that we have a former president who is
now out of power running his own foreign policy."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
