WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has paused all military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, a White House official said on Monday.
“President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Zelensky’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside office hours.
The move comes after Trump upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia upon taking office in January, adopting a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow — and after an explosive confrontation with Zelensky at the White House on Friday in which Trump criticized him for being insufficiently grateful for the Washington’s backing in the war with Russia.
On Monday Trump again said Zelensky should be more appreciative of American support after earlier responding angrily to an Associated Press report quoting Zelensky as saying the end of the war is “very, very far away.”
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, using an alternative spelling of the Ukrainian leader’s name.
But Trump also suggested on Monday that a deal to open up Ukraine’s minerals to US investment could still be agreed despite his frustration with Kyiv, as European leaders floated proposals for a truce in Russia’s war with its neighbor.
The Trump administration views a minerals deal as America’s way of earning back some of the tens of billions of dollars it has given to Ukraine in financial and military aid since Russia invaded three years ago.
When asked on Monday if the deal was dead, Trump said at the White House: “No, I don’t think so.”
Trump described it as a “great deal for us” and said he would give an update on the situation on Tuesday night when he addresses a joint session of Congress.
Trump halts all US military aid to Ukraine, White House official says
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Trump halts all US military aid to Ukraine, White House official says
- The move comes after Trump upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia upon taking office in January, adopting a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow
Trump insists he struck Iran on his own terms
- “We are now a nation divided between those who want to fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance,” Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X.
- Rubio himself doubled down on Tuesday after meeting with US House and Senate members, while insisting that “No, I told you this had to happen anyway”
WASHINGTON, United States: President Donald Trump and his team scrambled Tuesday to reclaim the narrative on why he decided to attack Iran, after his top diplomat suggested the US struck only after learning of an imminent Israeli strike.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio alarmed Democrats — who say only Congress can declare war — as well as many of Trump’s MAGA supporters on Monday when he said: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio told reporters.
Administration officials quickly backpedalled, insisting Trump authorized the strikes because Tehran was not seriously negotiating an accord on limiting its nuclear ambitions, and the United States needed to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities.
“No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim That Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Tuesday on X.
At an Oval Office meeting later with Germany’s chancellor, Trump went further, saying that “Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they (Iran) were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen.”
“So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
- Had to happen? -
Rubio himself doubled down on Tuesday after meeting with US House and Senate members, while insisting that “No, I told you this had to happen anyway.”
“The president made a decision. The decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide... behind this ability to conduct an attack.”
Critics seized on the muddied messaging to accuse Trump of precipitating the country into a war without a clear rationale, without informing Congress — and without a clear idea of how it might end.
They noted that just two weeks ago, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump again in Washington to take a hard line, in their seventh meeting since Trump’s return to power last year.
Some Republican allies rallied behind the president, with Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, insisting that “No one pushes or drags Donald Trump anywhere.”
“He acts in the vital national security interest of the United States,” Cotton told the “Fox & Friends” morning show.
But as crucial US midterm elections approach that could see Republicans lose their congressional majority, Trump risks shedding supporters who had welcomed his pledge to end foreign military interventions.
“We are now a nation divided between those who want to fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a top former Trump ally and a major figure in the populist and isolationist hard right, posted on X.
