The politically driven and seemingly inevitable death of the bipartsan ‘border bill’ that has been in negotiations for months is one of the primary news stories in the media these days. It is very clear that the MAGA Republicans in Congress are more interested in kowtowing to Donald Trump to make sure he can use the immigration issue as a campaign sound bite rather than actually doing something to help to solve the problem. Rather than enact legislation that will do more to address the border issue than has been done in years, they would prefer to impeach Sectretary Mayorkas which will do absolutely nothing to solve anything but will certainly generate photo ops and sound bites they can toss to the MAGA faithful.
However, there is another dynamic at work here that no one is really talking about. The bipartsian bill negotiated by the senate was a comprehensive bill that included not only funding for the US border but also aid for Ukraine, aid for Israel and aid for Taiwan. And I would argue that the aid to Ukraine is playing a much bigger role in this whole fiasco than Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump would like to publicly admit.
Much has been written about what a second Trump term would look like and speculating that he will be consumed with revenge and retribution against those who he believes, rightly or wrongly, have harmed him in some way. This growing list certainly has to include President Zelensky of Ukraine. Recall, it was the phone call with Zelensky that led to Trump’s first impeachment. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Trump is still carrying a grudge against everyone involved in that episode and that has to include President Zelensky.
When one factors in Trump’s penchant for ‘revenge and retribution’ and his unnatural affinity to Vladimir Putin, it is not much a stretch to believe that Trump actually wants Zelensky to fail. There is no geopolitical motivation or strategy behind this, it is simply an act of pure revenge Given Trump’s history of denigrating NATO and his cozy relationship with Putin, I believe he is willing to sacrifice the entire country of Ukraine for nothing more than personal retribution against President Zelensky.
This is a classic case of Trump’s sole egocentric focus and why he is simply not fit to be president. Everything is about him and in a second Trump term, he will be so consumed in using his power to exact vengeance that the act of governing the United States will take a back seat. There is widespread support for continued aid to Ukraine because most people understand that it is in the strategic long term national security interests of the United States and our European allies. However, Trump cannot get past his personal animus of President Zelensky and is wiling to sacrifice the security of the United States and Europe on the altar of his narcissism. And, unfortunately, all his cowardly toadies in congress are bowing to his wishes.
If anyone has any doubts that Trump’s second term will be about revenge and retribution, and the United States and much of the world will suffer the consequences, just look at what is going on now. It has already begun!
