President Donald Trump's refusal to allow punishing bipartisan sanctions against Russia and countries that buy its oil is fueling Senate Republicans' exasperation, according to The Hill.
A month after his highly criticized summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Trump's stance on Russia has weakened considerably, according to some members of the GOP.
"I’m sick of Trump and JD and their love affair with everything Putin,” an anonymous Republican senator told The Hill, referring to Trump’s red-carpet welcome of Putin at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson last month as well as Vice President JD Vance’s recent comments defending Putin’s approach to peace negotiations with Ukraine.
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the summit between Trump and Putin “wasn’t good for Ukraine.”
Trump's failure to act in any way significantly against Putin "is fueling growing disillusionment among some Senate Republicans that Trump is not serious about helping Ukraine," notes The Hill.
In August, Trump blamed Ukraine for getting attacked by Russia and said it would be unfair to allow Ukraine into NATO. He also suggested they'd have to give up land to Russia, telling Fox News, “While they understand — look, everybody can play cute and this and that, but, you know, Ukraine’s gonna get their life back.”
“Why we haven’t taken up a Russia sanctions bill on the floor?” Murkowski asked. “I know the answer to that — the answer is the president has asked for some time, but we’ve given him all summer. We’ve given him all summer, look what’s happened."
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Another anonymous Republican senator complained about Trump's failure to follow through with any action despite his blustery tough talk in the past.
“I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations stop buying oil from Russia,” Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. "Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when?”
And still, nothing.
“It’s irrational to me to think it would not raise the awareness on Putin’s part that the Senate has spoken” on sanctions, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. “Why on earth we’re not taking it up, I don’t see the strategic advantage of that."
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This, combined with Trump's brushing off of last week's drone and missile attack on Ukraine — the biggest aerial attack in the three-and-a-half-year-war — "[is] a clear sign that Putin doesn’t fear serious repercussions from Washington," reports The Hill.
“They’re just testing how far we’ll bend over. It makes me sick,” the second anonymous senator said.
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