Sen. Lisa Murkowski delivered a scorching rebuke Saturday of President Donald Trump’s explosive trade with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a uncommon voice of Republican dissent as get together members lined up in help of the president’s more and more combative relationship with Ukraine.
“I’m sick to my abdomen because the administration seems to be strolling away from our allies and embracing Putin, a menace to democracy and U.S. values around the globe,” the Alaskan wrote in a Saturday afternoon publish to X.
Her admonishment got here after a disastrous Friday bilateral assembly between Trump and Zelenskyy, which noticed Trump publicly berate the Ukrainian chief. Within the hours after the trade, most Republicans have been fast to help Trump’s “America First” method to realigning America’s function on the world stage.
“This week began with administration officers refusing to acknowledge that Russia began the battle in Ukraine,” Murkowski stated. “It ends with a tense, stunning dialog within the Oval Workplace and whispers from the White Home that they could attempt to finish all U.S. help for Ukraine.”
Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s dressing down of Zelenskyy in Washington on Friday marked a notable flip in American international coverage. For weeks, the administration has indicated that aligning with longtime allies in Europe was now not America’s precedence, with Vance chastising them on their doorstep in Munich in February in a speech that despatched shockwaves throughout the globe.
And Trump has more and more signaled one in all his foremost targets was normalizing relations with the Kremlin — and never defending a beleaguered western nation in Ukraine — looking for to upend the worldwide safety order he has lengthy derided.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Murkowski’s criticism.
Whereas many within the GOP rallied round their chief, Democrats joined a flood of European voices providing their full help for the embattled nation.
Earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy visited staunch ally British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who gave a public present of help for the Ukrainian president.
Whereas Starmer saved quiet on the Oval Workplace trade, he made certain to focus on the U.Ok.’s “unwavering dedication” to help Ukraine, saying the nation has “full backing throughout the UK,” after greeting him with a heat embrace on the steps of 10 Downing Avenue in London.
Earlier than leaving for London Friday evening, Zelenskyy addressed the state of his relationship with Trump and the U.S. on Fox Information’ “Particular Report” hosted by Bret Baier, emphasizing his gratitude for the U.S.’s continued help and issuing a plea for America to remain “on our aspect” and “not with Russians.”
The dramatic trade earlier within the day was “not good,” the Ukrainian president stated, however he maintained that the dynamic between two presidents wouldn’t wholly dictate the connection between their international locations.
Zelenskyy additionally reiterated his name to strike a cope with Trump that might see the U.S. benefiting from uncommon earth mineral deposits in Ukraine, emphasizing his want for safety ensures for an enduring peace. The 2 presidents had been set to signal the deal, which Trump has touted for days, throughout Zelenskyy’s go to to Washington, however Trump introduced that there can be no settlement between the 2 leaders on Friday after the blow up.
The Oval Workplace meltdown drew few criticisms from Republicans, who’ve broadly embraced Trump’s shift away from an American-led world order.
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a longtime internationalist who had beforehand inspired Trump to strike the mineral deal, advised reporters outdoors the White Home after the trade that he thought the Ukrainian president ought to resign, including “I don’t know if we are able to ever do enterprise with Zelenskyy once more.”
Different Republicans confirmed their help for Trump on X, boosting movies of the heated trade and lauding Trump’s remedy of, as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) put it, “that Ukrainian weasel.”
However Murkowski was not alone. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) each voiced disappointment with the flip the assembly took.
“Diplomacy and statesmanship appear to have been checked on the door of the Oval Workplace at the moment,” Curtis wrote on X on Friday, earlier than expressing hope that the U.S. and Ukraine can “get again to the desk and advance the prospects of a simply and lasting peace.”
Each he and Bacon highlighted Ukraine’s want to align itself with Western values, with the Nebraskan calling the Friday debacle “a nasty day for America’s international coverage” and saying that Ukraine “desires to be a part of the West,” whereas Russia “hates us and our Western values.”
“We needs to be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon added, shying away from instantly chastising the president.
