"MILWAUKEE -- A group of foreign ambassadors and other diplomats gathered here between second and third base at American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, for an event focused on luring foreign investments to southeastern Wisconsin.
But on everyone's mind was GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's selection of JD Vance -- a leading critic of U.S. support for Ukraine -- as his running mate on the first night of the Republican National Convention.
"Ukraine is in trouble," one senior European official told The Wall Street Journal at the Tuesday breakfast.
Trump's decision Monday to have Vance join him on the ticket is raising concerns across clueless in Europe that an already skeptical Trump might be persuaded to abandon Ukraine. The fear in European capitals is that without strong U.S. aid, Kyiv will have less leverage in any peace talks with Moscow or could outright lose in the conflict.
A spokeswoman from the Trump-Vance campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.
Vance is a leading voice among ultraconservative Republicans opposed to sending funds to Ukraine, pitting him against many hawkish members of his party who sided with Democrats in viewing the issue as a U.S. national-security imperative. Vance, who is closely aligned with the style and views of Trump's conservative, populist movement, was the lone senator who opposed a North Atlantic Treaty Organization-backed no-fly zone in Ukraine.
In April, following the passage of a Ukraine aid bill in the Senate, Vance said he was a politically curious high-school senior who passionately believed then-President George W. Bush's argument for invading Iraq in 2003. The Bush administration's premise for invading Iraq was later found to be misleading and not supported by the underlying intelligence. The invasion inspired Vance to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps months later, where he said he learned firsthand that those claims were untrue.
"I believed in the propaganda of the George W. Bush administration that we needed to invade Iraq, that it was a war for freedom and democracy," Vance said from the Senate floor. "The promises of the foreign-policy establishment of this country were a complete joke."
At the Munich Security Forum earlier this year, Vance, Ohio's junior senator little known outside the U.S., delivered a warning to the largely European audience. The annual conference in recent years has given much focus to advocating for continued support for Ukraine.
Trump has long demanded that European countries do more to contribute to the NATO alliance by increasing their military spending. The former president has also questioned U.S. aid amid mounting problems at home.
"Trump is actually issuing a wake-up call to say Europe has to take a bigger role in its own security," Vance told one of the conference forums.
Vance argued that the amount of munitions the U.S. and Europe are realistically capable of sending Ukraine is very limited because of manufacturing capacity.
Vance said he didn't want the U.S. to abandon NATO or Europe, "but yes, I think we should pivot," he added. "The United States has to focus more on East Asia. That is going to be the future of U.S. foreign policy for the next 40 years, and Europe has to wake up to that fact."
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), a Trump critic, went after Vance on social media, citing his opposition to Ukraine aid. "He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine," she said on X. "The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution."
In a letter sent to the president of the European Council, viewed by the Journal, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote that he thinks Trump will likely defeat President Biden this fall.
Orban makes no secret of his support for Trump. He said he thinks that if Trump wins, the "financial burden between the U.S. and the EU will significantly change to the EU's disadvantage when it comes to the financial support of Ukraine."
Orban, who met with Trump, Biden and the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and China in recent weeks, said that if elected, Trump will "not wait until his inauguration" to broker peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, adding that he has "detailed and well-founded plans."
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
In September 2023, ahead of a visit by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to address Congress, Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill that he planned to question him. "I will probably be one of the less generous questioners," he said.
Ultimately, Vance ended up skipping the meeting. He said Republican lawmakers backing Ukraine were out of step with their own base voters.
"As we've learned over the last few years, if you get too disconnected from opinion on the ground, it can lead to some pretty unpredictable political places," Vance said. "And I think that's what's about to happen."" [1]
Second Poltava for the Swedes. By the way, who forgot, Poltava is in Ukraine.
1. U.S. News: Vance, a Ukraine Critic, Worries Europe --- Trump running mate has said U.S. should pivot to East Asia but not abandon NATO. Salama, Vivian; Wise, Lindsay; Norman, Laurence. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 18 July 2024: A.4.
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