The U.S. Senate advanced a $95 billion foreign aid package on Sunday that would give funding to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

Although President Trump pressed the legislative chamber not to pass any further foreign aid without strings attached, 18 Republican senators supported the package.

In a 67-27 vote, the Senate advanced the foreign aid package without border security provisions.

Senators must still debate amendments to the legislation before it passes the legislative body.

“The Senate voted today to advance a $95 billion boondoggle, most of which goes to America’s favorite state: Ukraine. Many Republicans are going along like puppets. There’s something deeper going on here,” Vivek Ramaswamy wrote.

POLITICO reports:

The package faces some resistance from Republicans, who say they won’t back further aid to Ukraine unless it’s amended to include border policy changes. Last week, Republicans blocked a bipartisan border-foreign aid package that was negotiated for months, arguing it didn’t go far enough to limit migration. Consideration of border amendments would require unanimous consent from senators, which is still elusive.

“From this point forward, are you listening U.S. Senate (?),” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “No money in the form of foreign aid should be given to any country unless it is done as a loan, not just a giveaway.”

Trump had helped tank the bipartisan border-foreign aid bill, calling for Republicans to block that legislation as well. This time, many GOP senators didn’t seem concerned with his opposition.

“I think that it’s unlikely that we lose any more [members],” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in response to Trump’s comments. “It’s more likely that we can gain more, particularly of members who … were just wanting to make sure that our members got a chance to file amendments and have them heard.”

Republican support actually gained some ground on Sunday, with 18 voting to move the measure forward.

“In addition to Mullin, McConnell, Tillis and Murkowski, other Republicans backing the aid bill are Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), John Thune (S.D.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Todd Young (Ind.), Mitt Romney (Utah), Joni Ernst (Iowa), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), John Cornyn (Tex.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.),” The Washington Post reports.

More from The Washington Post:

Senators reaffirmed their commitment to NATO and to sending the $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine on the Senate floor. Ukraine is not a member of the treaty, but many NATO member countries have banded together to help the European nation fend off Russia’s invasion.

“I know it’s become quite fashionable in some circles to disregard the global interests we have as a global power,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has been pushing his conference to deliver the Ukraine aid, said on the Senate floor Sunday. “To lament the commitment that has underpinned the longest drought of great power conflict in human history. This is idle work for idle minds, and it has no place in the United States Senate.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters it was uncalled for to suggest we throw NATO allies “to the Russian wolves.”

Several Republicans said they didn’t believe Trump was suggesting he would support an attack on a NATO ally but was simply encouraging them to pay their share. “Any attack on a NATO ally would have devastating consequences for American men and women who would be deployed to defend them,” Tillis said.

“I don’t think he’s going to withdraw from NATO,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of Trump’s, said Sunday. “I think he’s trying to make a point. I’m not worried about it at all.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he would slow the foreign aid bill’s passage as much as possible, which is delaying the final vote. “We don’t have $100 billion to give anyone,” Paul said, referencing the U.S. debt.

 

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