U.S. President Donald Trump halted military aid to Ukraine after a contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House Oval Office on Friday, February 28 — which is a dramatic change from the Biden Administration's Ukraine policy. Former U.S. President Joe Biden considered military aid to Ukraine vital to both U.S. interests and European interests.
During the meeting, Trump and Vance angrily accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for the military aid Ukraine received from the U.S. after Russian forces, on orders from President Vladimir Putin, invaded the country. And many Republicans are defending Trump's decision to halt military aid to Ukraine.
But conservative Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) isn't one of them.
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Tillis told CNN, "A pause can't go long because the only person that benefits is Putin. Look, if I am Putin, I'm loving a pause. I'm (putting) up troops at the border. I'm trying to get more drones from Iran. I'm trying to get more crap from North Korea, I'm getting the illicit money coming from China. And I'm loving a pause, and I'm loving a cessation of a resupply to Ukraine."
But CNN's Manu Raju tweeted that "other Ukraine backers in Senate GOP" are "holding their fire on the pause of military aid."
Raju quotes Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Kansas) as saying, "The statement today from President Zelensky following up on the negotiations coming from the White House are a very positive sign. I think that it’s incumbent on people like me to take a deep breath, to let the process take place as it appears to be doing and to refrain from saying anything that might interfere with that. There's been too much rhetoric, and so I think it's time for me to be silent."
On X, some MAGA Republicans are attacking Tillis for supporting military aide to Ukraine.
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Kacey Jane Carrington, a self-described "America First" voter, tweeted, "If I am an American tax payer, which I am, Europe can provide aid for Ukraine. We are tapped out."
X user Krishna Murthy posted, "Tillis will soon be ex Senator" — a reference to the GOP primary challenge Tillis is facing from MAGA Republican Andy Nilsson in North Carolina's 2026 U.S. Senate race.
But another X user, John Marston, tweeted, "Russia are never going to stop and Trump is an absolute fool for thinking they will."
In North Carolina, Nilsson is running a very MAGA-themed campaign and arguing that Tillis, a more traditional conservative, isn't MAGA enough.
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