While he has not yet publicly announced his candidacy for president, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to challenge Donald Trump in next year’s Republican primary. But until now, DeSantis has been more of an echo of the former president than an alternative.
Not only has DeSantis fueled Trump’s cultural resentment with his overheated attacks on “awakening,” but now he’s also flirting with Trump’s “America first” approach to foreign policy. Answer Responding to a question from Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, DeSantis questioned the importance of US support for Ukraine, which is the victim of an unprovoked and brutal invasion by Russia.
“While the U.S. has many important national interests — securing our borders, managing the preparedness crisis within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and controlling the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — it remains it a territory The dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis wrote.
He also wrote, “The US must not provide any assistance that would require the deployment of US forces or allow Ukraine to conduct offensive operations beyond its borders. So F-16s and long-range missiles should be off the table.”
DeSantis further chided the Biden administration for “virtual ‘blank check’ financing of this conflict for ‘while it lasts’ with no defined goals or accountability.”
The government has made it clear that it is not sending troops to fight in Ukraine. President Biden has also ruled out the delivery of F-16s for the time being. Referring to the goal of the US policy, Biden stated that the goal is to help Ukraine “so that it can fight on the battlefield and be in the best possible position at the negotiating table”. While there are questions about what a peace deal might look like, it is unfair to blame the government for failing to identify its targets.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of DeSantis’ comment was his derogatory description of the war in Ukraine as merely a “territorial dispute.” Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) aptly noted that the war in Ukraine “is not a territorial dispute … just as it would not be a territorial dispute if the United States decided to invade Canada or the Bahamas.” Equally important, allowing Moscow to conquer Ukraine could encourage aggressive action by Russia against members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
DeSantis’ comments about Ukraine seem to bring him closer to Trump’s stance on the war. In response to Carlson’s question whether resistance to Russia in Ukraine is an important U.S. strategic interest, Trump replied: “No, but it is for Europe. But not for the United States. That is why Europe has to pay much more than we do or the same amount.”
Of course, Trump belittled the NATO alliance before and after taking office. This is not a position that DeSantis or any future president should take.
Source: LA Times