2024 GOP candidates remain divided over the issue of Ukraine support
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are emerging as leading rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. But when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they are united in arguing that stopping the aggression isn’t a vital U.S. strategic interest.
Trump and DeSantis were among the declared and potential GOP presidential candidates surveyed about the war by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The answers from the group of Republicans revealed a divergence of opinions and underscored how the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine is becoming a litmus test in the early phase of the Republican presidential primary.
But the responses from Trump and DeSantis were particularly notable, both because of their stature in the party and the similarities of their positions. They contended that American involvement had only drawn Russia closer to other adversarial states like China and condemned the tens of billions of dollars that the United States has provided in aid for Ukraine.
“We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland,” wrote DeSantis, who hasn’t yet announced a 2024 campaign.
“Europe isn’t helping itself. They are relying on the United States to largely do it for them. That is very unfair to us,” Trump said, calling on European countries to share more of the financial burden of defending Ukraine.
While the U.S. has provided the majority of the aid, European countries have made substantial contributions, with several giving Ukraine far more than the U.S. in terms of a percentage of their gross domestic product.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley stressed the importance of a Ukrainian victory over Russia. They cautioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t stop his aggression with Ukraine and warned that NATO countries were at risk.
“We support those who fight our enemies on their shores, so we will not have to fight them ourselves,” wrote Pence, who is considering a 2024 bid. Echoing a line he has used since the beginning of the war, Pence said, “There is no room for Putin apologists in the Republican Party” — a veiled criticism of Trump, who has called Putin “smart.”
In his first real articulation of a plan for Ukraine, DeSantis echoed a Russian talking point by referring to the war as a “territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia.” Ukraine’s borders are internationally recognized, including by the United Nations.
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis wrote.
Citing a goal of peace, DeSantis said the U.S. should not provide any assistance that would lead to the deployment of American troops or “enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders.
“F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table,” DeSantis said. “These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable.” The Biden administration has so far ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets and made clear to Ukraine that U.S. weapons should not be used to strike Russian territory.
Trump, as he has before, noted that Russia’s invasion didn’t happen during his administration, casting the conflict as “due to a new lack of respect for the U.S.”
With him as president, Trump said, “that horrible war would end in 24 hours, or less.” Previously asked how he would accomplish this feat, Trump said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that “you need that office, that power, that whatever it is” of being U.S. president, without providing any details.
As president, Trump disparaged Ukraine and made friendly overtures to Putin, including publicly siding with the Russian leader and his claims that Moscow didn’t meddle in the 2016 presidential election.