Sununu rips Trump, DeSantis on Ukraine aid

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) criticized fellow Republicans, including former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for their increasingly isolationist views on the war in Ukraine, writing in an op-ed that opposing U.S. aid “is not a viable foreign policy.”

“Simply opposing aid to Ukraine because President Biden supports it is not a viable foreign policy,” Sununu, who is mulling a potential presidential run, wrote in The New York Times. “To abandon Ukraine would set off a negative chain of events for U.S. interests domestically and abroad.”

Sununu’s targeting of the rising tide of anti-Ukrainian sentiment in the Republican Party comes after Trump and DeSantis made comments in the past weeks that have stirred controversy on the issue.

Trump said in response to a Fox News survey of declared and potential 2024 presidential candidates that Europe was relying on the U.S. to defend it against Russia, which he said is “unfair to us.” DeSantis argued in the same survey that supporting Ukraine was not in the “vital national interests” of America. The Florida governor also referred to the war as a “territorial dispute.”

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not a ‘territorial dispute,’ as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described it this month,” Sununu wrote in Saturday’s op-ed. “Russia is engaged in a war against an innocent people, and it must be condemned.”

Sununu took even harsher aim at Trump, looping him in with Republicans who the New Hampshire governor said have lost their “moral compass” on foreign policy.

“Some in the Republican Party have lost their moral compass on foreign policy, as evidenced by former president Donald Trump, who once called Putin’s invasion ‘genius’ and ‘savvy,’” Sununu wrote. “As Republicans, we should support freedom, not abandon it.”

GOP lawmakers who have pushed back on the Biden administration for the level of U.S. support to Ukraine have argued that the government should not be offering a foreign country a “blank check” to fight a war. Sununu wrote in the Times that the price of supporting Ukraine is much less than allowing Russia to overpower the nation.

“There should never be blank checks when it comes to government funding, and all tax dollars must be spent and accounted for wisely,” Sununu wrote. “Yet the price the United States is paying in Ukraine today is far less than the price we will face if Putin continues his westward march, threatening the sovereignty and security of NATO.”

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