By Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – In the past week, President Donald Trump and senior Republican lawmakers have presented starkly different views of a top U.S. national security challenge: Russia, its war in Ukraine and the threat it poses to Europe and the United States.
On Friday, Trump released a new national security strategy – which Moscow endorsed – calling for a quick peace deal in Ukraine, a retreat from bolstering European security and a conciliatory stance toward Russia.
Days later, the Republican-led House and Senate Armed Services Committees weighed in with a sweeping annual defense policy bill reaffirming U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO and restricting the Pentagon’s ability to reduce U.S. troop levels in Europe.
The documents suggest that despite Trump’s tight grip over the Republican Party, foreign policy disagreements between the administration and lawmakers are widening.
In recent weeks, some Republican lawmakers have raised concerns publicly about administration foreign policy stances, including a three-month-long campaign of bombings of alleged drug-smuggling boats off Latin America, a military buildup around Venezuela and Trump’s decision to allow sales of advanced U.S.-made computer chips to China.
“A large majority of Republicans … in the Senate and the House believe Russians are adversaries of the United States, that Moscow’s war on Ukraine is a Russian aggression that must not succeed,” said John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine with the Atlantic Council think tank.
“There’s more willingness to challenge (Trump) policies they think are flawed and it’s not, of course, just related to Ukraine.”
A source familiar with the defense bill’s drafting said it was not intended to contest Trump’s national security strategy, but to stop the Pentagon from suspending military intelligence-sharing and arms supplies to Ukraine or ordering U.S. troop drawdowns from Europe without White House approval or notifying Congress, as occurred earlier this year.
“The timing with the national security strategy is purely coincidental. This is about specific behavior by the Pentagon,” said the source.
Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A White House spokeswoman referred Reuters to a statement in which the administration expressed strong support for the defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Heather Vaughan, a spokeswoman for Mike Rogers, Republican chairman of House Armed Services, said lawmakers worked closely with the White House to ensure the bill embodied Trump’s policy of “peace through strength.”
The House is expected to pass the bill this week and the Senate could pass it by the end of next week. Trump has said he will sign it into law.
‘STRATEGIC STABILITY’ WITH MOSCOW VS UKRAINE SUPPORT
In his national security strategy, Trump said the U.S. would prioritize the Western Hemisphere, Europe should assume primary responsibility for its own security, the nearly four-year war in Ukraine should be settled quickly and “strategic stability” restored with Russia.
He also said he would oppose NATO as a “perpetually expanding alliance,” triggering alarm among some European officials and praise from the Kremlin, which said Trump’s strategy corresponded “in many ways to our vision.”
By contrast, the bipartisan defense authorization bill – which would guide U.S. defense policy for the next year – would preserve a U.S. program that supplies weapons to Ukraine, proposing Kyiv receive $800 million in security aid through that program over the next two years.
Republican U.S. Representative Darrell Issa of California called the bill’s provisions normal “checks and balances,” adding that on Ukraine there had to be “transparency, but continued support, continued support for Ukraine.”
Other provisions make clear that many in Congress consider Russia a threat to the U.S. and Europe.
They include extending a requirement that the administration provide Congress with a comprehensive report on Russia’s military strength, strategy and objectives worldwide, its threats to NATO states and military and industrial targets, its objectives in Ukraine and cooperation with China, Iran and North Korea and its influence operations in the U.S.
The Pentagon would be barred from spending funds to reduce the number of U.S. troops stationed in Europe below 76,000 for more than 45 days or relinquish any U.S. military property or the U.S. command of NATO unless it first fulfilled strict conditions.
SUPPORT FOR BALTIC ALLIES
The administration also would have to preserve a U.S. security initiative that bolsters the Baltic states against Russian “aggression” that it has sought to defund.
The measure could limit the Pentagon’s ability to withhold arms from Ukraine by claiming they were needed for U.S. stockpiles or to suspend or terminate U.S. military intelligence-sharing with Kyiv by requiring that Congress receive detailed justifications for such actions.
The Trump administration has threatened to stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and military intelligence unless Kyiv agrees to his peace plan under which it would concede territory to Russia.
The NDAA also contains a provision that would withhold part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon releases video of strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in waters off Venezuela and submits overdue reports on topics including lessons learned from the Ukraine war.
“That was a bipartisan shot across the bow to Donald Trump to hand over the tapes, done by Republicans,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a Senate speech on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)
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