GOP lawmakers take Trump’s policy orders with a grain of salt

Congressional Republicans have taken former President Trump’s policy directives with a bit of a grain of salt, suggesting they believe his comments on issues are primarily intended to have a dramatic effect on the campaign.

Congress passed an extension of the warrantless surveillance program and sent President Biden a massive foreign aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine.

President Trump did not support either effort. He publicly opposed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) program and the reauthorization of aid to Ukraine.

It’s not that Republicans are ignoring Trump. More House Republicans voted against funding to Ukraine than voted for it.

However, Trump’s 0-2 record on major policy bills in Congress means that Republican leaders who disagree with him on policy, particularly Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, continue to exert influence. It shows what is possible.

And while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is aligned with Trump, he is not afraid to introduce legislation in the House that Trump doesn’t agree with.

President Trump’s staunchest allies in the House, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), lead opposition to the Ukraine funds in the House. did.

Greene even tabled a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair to remove Johnson from office, citing dissatisfaction with Johnson’s handling of the issue.

Senate Republican Leader John Thune (S.D.) said Tuesday that Johnson should control Trump’s opposition and urge the former president to back off from his full-fledged attempt to derail the Ukraine funding policy in the full Senate in February. He praised his contribution to convincing the public.

Thune said of Johnson’s recent outreach to Trump, including a visit to Mar-a-Lago in mid-April, that “the engagement with the former president probably helped because he had a pretty strong opposition position before.” I think so,” he said.

At a campaign rally in South Carolina in February, President Trump told “one of the presidents of a great nation” that if NATO allies don’t pay their share, they won’t come to their aid if attacked by Russia. He declared that he had spoken out, causing a stir. He would force and in return “encourage them to do whatever they want.”

Two months ago, just before the Senate voted on a $95 billion foreign aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine, President Trump posted on his social media sites: attached. “

“The United States should no longer be ‘stupid’!” Trump posted.

The likely Republican presidential nominee said last February that Biden was “systematically, and perhaps unwittingly, pushing us into what could become World War III” by intervening in the Ukraine war. “There is,” he warned.

Nevertheless, the Senate passed the Ukraine bill in February with 70 votes, including support from 22 Republicans.

McConnell hailed the vote as a major success, as it garnered support from nearly half of the chamber despite President Trump’s lobbying efforts against the bill.

He scored an even bigger victory Tuesday when 31 Republicans voted to advance the House-approved foreign aid package. The foreign aid package was largely similar to a bill considered in the Senate two months ago.

Senate Republican leaders accuse former Fox News host Tucker Carlson of leading the “demonization” of U.S. support for the Ukraine war, with President Trump expressing “mixed opinions” on the issue said.

Although many MAGA-allied Republicans and Senate Republican candidates continue to espouse isolationist views on the war and the NATO alliance, McConnell said Tuesday that his side has the upper hand following an overwhelming vote in the Senate. I think there is.

“I think we were of mixed opinion on this discussion. I went from 10 p.m. [Senate Republican] “You need to cast at least 30 votes,” he pointed out. “The House” [GOP conference] It’s 50-50, as we thought it would be if they voted. ”

Thirty-one Republican senators voted to advance the bill Tuesday, eight more than voted yes earlier this year.

On Saturday, 101 House Republicans voted in favor of aid to Ukraine, and 112 voted against it.

“I think we’ve turned a corner on the isolationist movement. I realized how uncomfortable its supporters feel when they’re called isolationists. I think we’ve made some progress.” McConnell told reporters.

But Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who played a leading role in opposing the Ukraine aid package, said Trump’s near-silence on the bill in recent weeks was a sign that the president He said this was because he wanted to maintain influence towards ending the conflict if elected. November.

“I think he intentionally… stayed out of this. He’s not involved in any of the discussions we’re having here. He could have looked into it, but… , I think he very deliberately chose not to do that,” he said.

“Trump’s argument is that if he had been president, this wouldn’t have happened and he wants to stop the killings. And even after he becomes president, there will be some degree of influence.” I think it’s important to really maintain strength and flexibility,” Vance added.

Trump took a more active role this month, urging Republican lawmakers to “kill FISA.”

“Kill FISA. It was used illegally against me and many others. They spied on my campaign!!!” President Trump posted on Truth Social.

However, that did not prevent a two-year reauthorization of the FISA warrantless surveillance program from passing both chambers of Congress with strong bipartisan support.

A majority of House Republicans (126) voted for the bill, with 88 voting against it.

In the Senate, 30 Republicans voted in favor of expanding surveillance powers, and 16 voted “no.”

Alarmed Republican lawmakers pushed back against President Trump’s call to block reauthorization of the spy program. They argued that letting it lapse would put the nation at risk.

“We are very disappointed in President Trump’s assessment of FISA. It is an essential tool. It may need fixing, but as everyone in the intelligence community has said, it is absolutely essential,” Senate Intelligence said. said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the committee’s ranking member.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), the Republican vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, warned: “If we fail to monitor foreign terrorists and foreign spies overseas, we will retreat from intelligence operations.” .

Rubio pointed out to The Hill on Tuesday that during the Trump era, Republicans voted with Trump’s support to reauthorize warrantless surveillance programs.

And Trump was wrong to blame the FBI’s 2016 wiretaps on former campaign aide Carter Page on surveillance programs authorized by Section 702 of FISA, a law that Congress reauthorized last week. He pointed out that.

“In fact, this bill contained reforms that could have prevented them from even obtaining that warrant. In the bill we just passed, as part of the warrant, political opponents You cannot use the survey for [request,]” in response to President Trump’s criticism.

Rubio said that despite President Trump’s high-profile posts on Truth Social, he did not directly discuss the reauthorization program.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), one of President Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, said that by demanding that President Trump provide some of the aid to Ukraine in the form of: He claimed to have had influence over both the Ukraine funding package and FISA reauthorization. Start lending and limit FISA extensions to 2 years instead of 5 years.

The House of Representatives included a provision directing the president to arrange $10 billion in economic aid to Ukraine as a loan, but also giving Biden or a future president the power to waive repayments.

“He supported it as a loan and it passed,” Graham argued. “He said, ‘We’ll support financing.'” And some of that is debt. ”

“He said he supported FISA for two years instead of five years. He wasn’t against FISA forever,” Graham said of President Trump’s stance on warrantless surveillance. “When he was told it would be two years to look again, he said ‘OK’.”

And Graham predicted that the bulk of future support for Ukraine will be set up as loans.