Ukraine Dealt Triple Blow by Incoming Trump Admin

Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations of Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard have raised concerns among Ukrainian sources about Kyiv’s fight against Russian aggression, given the pair’s previous condemnation of continued U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

In another potential blow for Kyiv, Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) has not ruled out voting for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to stay in post, despite having tried to oust him. She opposed the $61 billion bill Johnson ushered for Kyiv, but Greene told The Hill Tuesday, “I really don’t think that’ll happen under President Donald Trump,” referring to Ukrainian aid and other funding of “the Biden-Harris agenda.”

The president-elect has repeatedly criticized U.S. military aid for Ukraine, and his nominations this week appear to reinforce that view. Newsweek has contacted the offices of Gaetz and Gabbard, as well as the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment.

“Trump has made clear that’s not in his long-term interest. He wants to bring this to an end, and it shouldn’t surprise us that he will install people who see the world his way,” Gene Moran, national security expert and former adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told Newsweek on Thursday. “I think they’ll just be voices in the chorus.”

Trump nominated Florida Representative Gaetz as attorney general, having earlier picked former Hawaii Congresswoman Gabbard for director of national intelligence.

While Trump’s announcements were greeted with shock in Washington, D.C., they were also met with concern in Ukraine. “Trump nominates new attorney general who opposes aid to Ukraine,” was the headline in Ukrainska Pravda as it reported that Florida Congressman Gaetz is in line for the post.

In reporting the story, the outlet noted how, three months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Gaetz was among 10 U.S. representatives who voted against Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act to help the passage of material to Kyiv.

It said that Gaetz “is also known for being one of the initiators” to oust the GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy in “an action which stopped the vote on assistance to Ukraine for an extended period.”

Trump has praised Gaetz as a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney” and that, in the House Judiciary Committee, which performs oversight of Department of Justice, he “played a key role in defeating the Russia hoax.”

Meanwhile, in reporting Gabbard’s nomination, Ukrainska Pravda described her as “a politician and former U.S. Army Reserve officer who opposes providing aid to Ukraine.” She was a Democratic congresswoman between 2013 and 2021 and, in 2022, became an independent before joining the GOP last month.

The outlet said that, in 2022, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) had “warned that Gabbard had been paid by the Kremlin to work on a foreign audience for several years.”

Ukrainska Pravda also said that, over the war, the politician has declared that “the United States is guilty of military aggression” against Russia, having “provoked” the Russians for many years and “spread disinformation globally about weapons of mass destruction allegedly being developed in Ukrainian biolabs.”

In outlining her position in 2022, Gabbard said on Twitter that she did not believe there are biological weapons labs or biological weapons in Ukraine but was concerned labs were researching viruses in an active war zone.

Other Ukrainian voices have expressed their concerns at Trump’s nominations. The founding director of the American University in Kyiv, Roman Sheremeta, posted on X how Gabbard “has consistently opposed support for Ukraine,” while Gaetz is “also against U.S. aid to Ukraine.”

Retired vice admiral Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, told Newsweek how the confirmation process pans out remains to be seen.

“There will be a shift in terms of the emphasis on assistance for Ukraine with the Trump administration,” Murrett said. “The exact contours, what it’s going to look like, are unknown at this point and little bit dynamic there.”