Trump’s 'malignant narcissism' that killed foreign aid may put US troops in danger: expert

While there's been plenty of hand-wringing over the failed vote in the US Senate to appropriate more funding to the Southern border, the most consequential loss could be for Ukraine, according to a foreign policy commentator.

In a Wednesday column for the Daily Beast, David Rothkopf — who served as a Commerce Department official in former President Bill Clinton's administration — condemned the death of the bipartisan border and foreign aid package, assigning blame for the bill's failure to the "malignant narcissism of one man." Rothkopf noted that should the US fail to send Ukraine more munitions in its ongoing war against Russia, it could ultimately result in not only Ukraine's defeat, but the eventual fall of other small eastern European democracies. Should that happen, Rothkopf argues that US troops may eventually be deployed to prevent other dominoes from falling.

"America’s network of alliances worldwide is widely regarded by foreign policy experts as the crown jewel of our national security. No other nation in history has ever had a constellation of friends so extensive or powerful," Rothkopf wrote. "And the most glittering diadem of that network, because of its history, size, power, and importance, is NATO."

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Rothkopf argued that the US' financial support of the NATO coalition has been the "greatest return on investment we have made in our national defense in modern memory," noting that 80% of that money ends up going to US-based companies. He noted that since Russia's invasion, Ukraine has successfully used the US' assistance to destroy approximately half of Russia's considerable ground combat capabilities. Late last year, the AP reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin could bleed support among his base in Russia should his army continue expending lives and resources in his conquest.

"Should the U.S. stop providing critical aid to Ukraine, the gains Ukraine has made against Russia would be undone and Ukraine might ultimately fall to the invaders," Rothkopf wrote. "Were that to happen, Russia would clearly conclude that the US — and by extension NATO — would no longer have the will to stop it from further aggression and more border states, from the Baltics to Moldova, would soon be at risk."

"And because the NATO treaty requires aggression against any one member to be treated like aggression against all of them, a major war would likely be the result. It is one to which the U.S. would be obligated to intervene and American troops would be put at risk," he added.

During his most recent visit to Washington, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that without additional US support, he would have no choice but to start pushing back his lines and ceding more of his country's territory to Putin. Rothkopf warned that this could signal to China that it could invade Taiwan largely unimpeded, and that other US allies would have plenty of reason to doubt America's commitments in the future.

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"The MAGA movement that has hijacked the GOP has not only betrayed its own stated past objectives with regard to the border or US national security, its recent behavior has revealed more clearly than ever the lie at the core of the 'America First' slogan they stole from the Nazi appeasers of the 1930s," Rothkopf wrote. "The MAGA GOP is not about America First. It never was. It is solely about Donald Trump First."

Click here to read Rothkopf's column in full (subscription required).