Donald Trump’s invitation for Russia to invade NATO countries catalyzed anxiety that Europe may have to fight Russian aggression alone, as Trump and his followers are becoming increasingly assertive that supporting Ukraine is a bad deal for the U.S.
Earlier this week, Trump, who has long viewed foreign policy from the prism of money, highlighted the defense money he says is supplied by the U.S., comparing it to that paid by other countries. "You don't pay your bills, you get no protection. It's very simple," he said. “Hundreds of billions of dollars came into NATO, and that's why they have money.” Trump went on to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “the greatest salesman in history” and promised that he himself will “get the Ukraine war settled.”
On the heels of Tucker Carlson's fawning interview with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Elon Musk’s assertion that “we have to kill” Ukraine aid because “there’s no way in hell Putin is going to lose,” and flagging public support for Ukraine more broadly, Trump is pressuring his House GOP acolytes, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, to kill the $60 billion funding bill for Ukraine, despite its passage by the Senate, with Marjorie Taylor Greene arguing “Ukraine is not the 51st state.”
Having catalyzed 1,200 major global corporations to exit Russia two years ago in protest over the bloody invasion of a peaceful, sovereign nation, we are not surprised to have received scores of alarmed messages. We have been reviewing the economics behind continuing U.S. support to Ukraine, and even setting aside the terrible human suffering amidst thousands of civilian deaths, as well as the diplomatic and national security value of such aid, in actuality, the U.S. is the single biggest winner from supporting Ukraine. Here are three tangible reasons why.
Although some may claim U.S. aid vanishes into a cesspool of unchecked Ukrainian corruption, one study has shown that 90% of Ukraine aid dollars are not actually sent to Ukraine after all. Rather, these funds stay in the U.S., where leading defense contractors........