BETHLEHEM, Pa. — “It feels like a lifetime ago that Donald Trump was promising to end the war in Ukraine on day one of his second term,” Tom Shortell says in the opening of this week’s Political Pulse.
It’s but one example of how foreign affairs have played out through President Trump’s second term and the ripple effect through his own party.
In the last few weeks, Trump’s administration has been pushing a 28-point peace plan for a full-scale war that has been ongoing for well over 1,000 days – since Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Trump’s plan would see Ukraine surrender territory to Russia, and the proposal hasn’t been popular with some members of the president’s own party.
And Borick said it’s been obvious the broader political environment shifted this fall.
“These signs of erosion within the Republican unity around the president and his policy proposals – that’s starting to break. How far it breaks, how much it will is yet to be determined,” he said. “But it’s very clear that that’s starting to happen.”
Trump’s second term has been marked by a continuation of his "America First" approach, and Shortell said Trump also has a lot of leeway with foreign affairs and international relations.
Does losing a few Congressmen – even in such a tightly divided Congress – matter on an issue like this?
Borick said Trump doesn’t necessarily need all that support, but these disagreements with the president go into the broader atmosphere.
“Lots of Republicans questioning how much they want to be aligned with the president, on what issues they want to be aligned … I would take it as a pretty big signal if those divisions are public and they’re clear and they’re among individuals that have largely aligned with the president in the past and now are saying, ‘No, on this one I’m not going to do it’ … I think it’s a sign,” he said.
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