
Could Trump convince MAGA to support Ukraine?
CNN
President Donald Trump made an announcement Monday aligning him more firmly with Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion than ever before.
President Donald Trump made an announcement Monday aligning him more firmly with Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion than ever before. The US will send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, the president said during a meeting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Trump also laid out a new deadline for Russia — threatening trade consequences, including secondary sanctions, if a peace deal isn’t reached in 50 days. Even before the weapons announcement, which the president had telegraphed last week, the hawks were celebrating. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina previewed the announcement Sunday as a “turning point” and added, “The game, regarding [Vladimir] Putin’s invasion of Russia, is about to change.” Trump’s tougher tactic toward Russia – albeit with a 50-day deadline that’s much more generous than the “two weeks” he floated earlier this summer – follows days of him expressing newfound skepticism of Putin’s intentions, after years of equivocations and a curiously kid-gloves approach to Russia. But the timing is also far from ideal for Trump, politically speaking. He is already dealing with a backlash from the MAGA base over his administration’s botched handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. And the base in recent years has steadily moved away from Ukraine.

Facing deadly Iranian drone attacks across the Middle East, the US military has been rushing defensive systems into the region while adjusting to a threat that has come to dominates modern battlefields and carries echoes of a weapon that haunted service members during the 20 years of the war on terror.












