When Trump is POTUS, will Ukraine still get enough American military aid?
- Thread starter Politruk
- Start date
Curiouser and curiouser.
Forbes Staff
Molly Bohannon has been a Forbes news reporter since 2023.
Follow
1
Jan 24, 2025,03:27pm EST
Updated Jan 24, 2025, 03:53pm EST
The State Department issued guidance stopping foreign aid grant spending for 90 days, multiple outlets reported Friday, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that sought to realign foreign spending with American interests.
There was confusion on what the order meant, though, with some organizations seeing it as a stop-work order, according to the AP.
Politico reported it “appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine,” and Reuters reported the directive only included a waiver for aid to Israel and Egypt.
The executive order signed by Trump on Monday stated U.S. foreign aid and bureaucracy are not “aligned with American interests and in many cases [are] antithetical to American values.”
Forbes has reached out to the State Department for more information.
Trump’s State Department Pauses Foreign Aid — Impact On Ukraine Unclear
Molly BohannonForbes Staff
Molly Bohannon has been a Forbes news reporter since 2023.
Follow
1
Jan 24, 2025,03:27pm EST
Updated Jan 24, 2025, 03:53pm EST
Topline
The State Department issued guidance stopping foreign aid grant spending for 90 days, multiple outlets reported Friday, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that sought to realign foreign spending with American interests.
Key Facts
The order from the State Department bans any new government spending on foreign aid projects, seemingly allowing existing programs to run only with the money they have on hand, the Associated Press reported, after obtaining cables sent from State to foreign embassies.There was confusion on what the order meant, though, with some organizations seeing it as a stop-work order, according to the AP.
Politico reported it “appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine,” and Reuters reported the directive only included a waiver for aid to Israel and Egypt.
The executive order signed by Trump on Monday stated U.S. foreign aid and bureaucracy are not “aligned with American interests and in many cases [are] antithetical to American values.”
Forbes has reached out to the State Department for more information.
UltraChad
Chaddius Maximus
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2024
- Posts
- 6,950
MajorRewrite
Iffy
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2014
- Posts
- 9,107
This says that the only grants or aid of any kind that continue are military funding to Israel and Egypt. Everything else is “temporarily paused”.
The president doesn’t actually have the authority to do that, so there will upcoming fights in the courts and in Congress.
White House pauses federal grants and loans
The president doesn’t actually have the authority to do that, so there will upcoming fights in the courts and in Congress.
MajorRewrite
Iffy
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2014
- Posts
- 9,107
And on the 7th day Putin said, “Cut off aid to Ukraine.” And lo it was done.
UltraChad
Chaddius Maximus
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2024
- Posts
- 6,950
You don't want Russia to win this war, do you? That would be bad for the whole world, America included.It's not a thing now.
"America LAST" isn't in charge anymore bud......
UltraChad
Chaddius Maximus
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2024
- Posts
- 6,950
I don't give a fuck, it's none of our business.
No, it will be bad for defense contractors. Like your friends the Cheney's.
Congrats you're the warmongers now.
But good for Putin’s puppet. Putin still has the pee-pee tape
You do not want to live in a world where Russia has won this war!
UltraChad
Chaddius Maximus
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2024
- Posts
- 6,950
US foreign aid transformed Ukraine. Its suspension threatens decades of work
With the stroke of a pen, U.S. President Donald Trump last week put a freeze on projects that have helped Ukraine become freer and more democratic since the earliest days of its independence in 1991.
The White House ordered a 90-day suspension of U.S. foreign aid-funded projects globally, to ascertain if they aligned with "American interests" and "American values."
The agencies affected include the National Endowment for Democracy, the Food for Peace Emergency Program, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization particularly active in Ukraine.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, USAID has provided Ukraine with $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $5 billion in development assistance, and more than $30 billion in direct budget support, helping to rebuild schools after Russian attacks, pay for bomb shelters, advanced medical equipment for hospitals and much more.
Yet USAID's support for Ukraine began well before the full-scale invasion and, according to people who have worked on such projects, their work is vital, and their value immeasurable.
Ukrainian photographer Vladyslav Sodel, who has been capturing USAID’s work in Ukraine for the past eight years, said people "can't even imagine" how deeply all the funds provided by USAID have become woven into Ukrainians' lives "to the point where they don’t even suspect it."
In a post on Facebook, Sodel said this aid ranges from "a bed with a mattress" for war refugees, to "multi-billion-dollar investments" in Ukraine's energy infrastructure that has been ravaged by Russian mass missile attacks.
With the stroke of a pen, U.S. President Donald Trump last week put a freeze on projects that have helped Ukraine become freer and more democratic since the earliest days of its independence in 1991.
The White House ordered a 90-day suspension of U.S. foreign aid-funded projects globally, to ascertain if they aligned with "American interests" and "American values."
The agencies affected include the National Endowment for Democracy, the Food for Peace Emergency Program, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization particularly active in Ukraine.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, USAID has provided Ukraine with $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $5 billion in development assistance, and more than $30 billion in direct budget support, helping to rebuild schools after Russian attacks, pay for bomb shelters, advanced medical equipment for hospitals and much more.
Yet USAID's support for Ukraine began well before the full-scale invasion and, according to people who have worked on such projects, their work is vital, and their value immeasurable.
Ukrainian photographer Vladyslav Sodel, who has been capturing USAID’s work in Ukraine for the past eight years, said people "can't even imagine" how deeply all the funds provided by USAID have become woven into Ukrainians' lives "to the point where they don’t even suspect it."
In a post on Facebook, Sodel said this aid ranges from "a bed with a mattress" for war refugees, to "multi-billion-dollar investments" in Ukraine's energy infrastructure that has been ravaged by Russian mass missile attacks.
He can't say THIS ain't a quid pro quo!
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday indicated that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Russia.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump complained that the U.S. had sent more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine than its European partners, adding, “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”
Trump suggested that he’s received word from the Ukrainian government that they’d be willing to make a deal to give the U.S. access to the elements critical to the modern high-tech economy.
“I want to have security of rare earth,” Trump added. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday indicated that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Russia.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump complained that the U.S. had sent more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine than its European partners, adding, “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”
Trump suggested that he’s received word from the Ukrainian government that they’d be willing to make a deal to give the U.S. access to the elements critical to the modern high-tech economy.
“I want to have security of rare earth,” Trump added. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”
Extortion of Ukraine is how it started. In return for the US honoring the treaty to guarantee Ukraine against Russian attack, provided they don't develop a nuclear weapon that will deter Russia from invading, Trump wanted information on Hunter Biden.
There wasn't any, but that didn't matter. Fake shit would have sufficed, all he wanted to do was to humiliate President Biden. Eventually he got his stooges to jail Hunter anyway.
So Trump told Putin that it was OK to invade Ukraine; he was not going to defend that country unless he was paid off. Trump learned his politics dealing with the mob in New York, he knows that threats work best when they are real. Putin took his not-a-hint, and promptly invaded.
Now, dirt on Hunter is not relevant. So what else can he take in payment? Mineral wealth.
One thing that Trump is not concerned with is how he'll be remembered in the history books of the future.
There wasn't any, but that didn't matter. Fake shit would have sufficed, all he wanted to do was to humiliate President Biden. Eventually he got his stooges to jail Hunter anyway.
So Trump told Putin that it was OK to invade Ukraine; he was not going to defend that country unless he was paid off. Trump learned his politics dealing with the mob in New York, he knows that threats work best when they are real. Putin took his not-a-hint, and promptly invaded.
Now, dirt on Hunter is not relevant. So what else can he take in payment? Mineral wealth.
One thing that Trump is not concerned with is how he'll be remembered in the history books of the future.
UltraChad
Chaddius Maximus
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2024
- Posts
- 6,950
I love seeing all the Ukraine FIRST Democrats REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE out over this.
GOOD!!! "America LAST" lost the election, thank gawd.
Nothing at all to do with that!
UltraChad
Chaddius Maximus
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2024
- Posts
- 6,950
That's exactly what it is and that's why you and your "America LAST" buddies are all bent out of shape.
MajorRewrite
Iffy
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2014
- Posts
- 9,107
Crotchety Old Fat Man with a Bad Combover Threatens an Ally (Part 527):
Ukraine ‘may be Russian someday’, Trump says ahead of Zelenskyy meeting with Vance
Ukraine ‘may be Russian someday’, Trump says ahead of Zelenskyy meeting with Vance
I don't think he has the slightest idea what this war is about.
It appears peace talks are going to happen . . . maybe . . .
BRUSSELS — It was the moment Europeans and Ukrainians have been dreading for months, if not years.
Yet when it finally came, on a wintry afternoon as Kyiv froze, the suddenness and scale of Donald Trump’s peace plan still left Ukraine’s allies in shock.
The United States has effectively called time on its support for Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion, with Trump announcing immediate negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up hope of taking back all the land Russia has seized.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the first to divulge America’s position at a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Hegseth told his counterparts gathered in the Belgian capital that Zelenskyy had no chance of achieving his goal of kicking Russian forces out of Crimea and the east of the country and returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.
“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Hegseth said.
He then warned that America will be pulling back from its commitments to European security, renouncing the historic role it has played since the end of World War II, and set out a stark vision in which European governments will bear primary responsibility for their own defense — as well as for that of Ukraine.
Soon after, Trump extinguished any hope the cold new reality could be avoided. “I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” the U.S. president said in a post on social media.
“We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation … Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!”
BRUSSELS — It was the moment Europeans and Ukrainians have been dreading for months, if not years.
Yet when it finally came, on a wintry afternoon as Kyiv froze, the suddenness and scale of Donald Trump’s peace plan still left Ukraine’s allies in shock.
The United States has effectively called time on its support for Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion, with Trump announcing immediate negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up hope of taking back all the land Russia has seized.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the first to divulge America’s position at a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Hegseth told his counterparts gathered in the Belgian capital that Zelenskyy had no chance of achieving his goal of kicking Russian forces out of Crimea and the east of the country and returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.
“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” Hegseth said.
He then warned that America will be pulling back from its commitments to European security, renouncing the historic role it has played since the end of World War II, and set out a stark vision in which European governments will bear primary responsibility for their own defense — as well as for that of Ukraine.
Soon after, Trump extinguished any hope the cold new reality could be avoided. “I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” the U.S. president said in a post on social media.
“We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation … Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!”
WTF?!
Ukraine not invited to peace talks!
Kyiv has not been invited to talks between the US and Russia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian government source has told the BBC.
The US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg had said Kyiv would be involved in this week's talks in Saudi Arabia, but the source said no delegation would be present.
European leaders have also not been asked to join the discussions, and are due to meet instead on Monday in Paris at a summit hastily arranged by the French president, as fears grow the continent is being locked out of negotiations.
The separate meetings follow a turbulent week where Washington has signalled a drastic change in its approach to the war in Ukraine.
The White House's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed he was travelling to Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening for the first face-to-face talks between the US and Russia towards ending the conflict.
US President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that Witkoff had met with Putin already "for a very extended period, like about three hours".
Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer and friend of Trump, was in Moscow this week to secure the release of a US teacher imprisoned on charges of marijuana possession.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz are also set to meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia, less than a week after Trump held a phone call with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine not invited to peace talks!
Kyiv has not been invited to talks between the US and Russia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian government source has told the BBC.
The US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg had said Kyiv would be involved in this week's talks in Saudi Arabia, but the source said no delegation would be present.
European leaders have also not been asked to join the discussions, and are due to meet instead on Monday in Paris at a summit hastily arranged by the French president, as fears grow the continent is being locked out of negotiations.
The separate meetings follow a turbulent week where Washington has signalled a drastic change in its approach to the war in Ukraine.
The White House's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed he was travelling to Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening for the first face-to-face talks between the US and Russia towards ending the conflict.
US President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that Witkoff had met with Putin already "for a very extended period, like about three hours".
Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer and friend of Trump, was in Moscow this week to secure the release of a US teacher imprisoned on charges of marijuana possession.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz are also set to meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia, less than a week after Trump held a phone call with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin.
Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations
Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.
The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.
The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025. It states that the US and Ukraine should form a joint investment fund to ensure that “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.
The agreement covers the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”, leaving it unclear what else might be encompassed. “This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles,” it states.
The US will take 50pc of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, and 50pc of the financial value of “all new licences issued to third parties” for the future monetisation of resources. There will be “a lien on such revenues” in favour of the US. “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children’,” said one source close to the negotiations.
It states that “for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals”. Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy. The fund “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects. And so forth, in this vein. It seems to have been written by private lawyers, not the US departments of state or commerce.
President Zelensky himself proposed the idea of giving the US a direct stake in Ukraine’s rare earth elements and critical minerals on a visit to Trump Tower in September, hoping to smooth the way for continued arms deliveries.
Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.
The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.
The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025. It states that the US and Ukraine should form a joint investment fund to ensure that “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.
The agreement covers the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”, leaving it unclear what else might be encompassed. “This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles,” it states.
The US will take 50pc of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, and 50pc of the financial value of “all new licences issued to third parties” for the future monetisation of resources. There will be “a lien on such revenues” in favour of the US. “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children’,” said one source close to the negotiations.
It states that “for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals”. Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy. The fund “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects. And so forth, in this vein. It seems to have been written by private lawyers, not the US departments of state or commerce.
President Zelensky himself proposed the idea of giving the US a direct stake in Ukraine’s rare earth elements and critical minerals on a visit to Trump Tower in September, hoping to smooth the way for continued arms deliveries.
