Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blasted the House for passing foreign aid bills, arguing Congress is spending money that “we don’t have” and that the U.S. should be focusing on securing its own borders instead.

“We’re gonna further mortgage and plunder our children’s future, over $100 billion,” Johnson said during his Saturday morning appearance on NewsNation. “We spend close to $900 billion on defense, but every time there’s some kind of defense action seems like we need to do a supplemental.

“I think the point that most of us have been making, most Americans believe that we ought to secure our own border before we spend over $100 billion that we don’t have under our children’s future on helping other people secure their borders,” he said.

Johnson’s remarks on “NewsNation Live” came just hours before the lower chamber officially approved a $95 billion foreign aid package after months of intense debate. The foreign aid package includes around $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and other war-torn zones and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. It also includes other national security measures, including a potential ban on TikTok.

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of veteran Republican campaign operative Jesse Benton for steering an illegal Russian contribution to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Benton, who played leading roles in the presidential campaigns of Ron and Rand Paul and worked briefly as Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, helped facilitate an improper $25,000 payment to the Trump camp and the Republican National Committee on behalf of Roman Vasilenko, a Russian national who had approached another GOP operative, Doug Wead, about his interest in meeting an American celebrity. When he was unable to get an audience with Oprah Winfrey, Steven Seagal or Jimmy Carter, the operative suggested Trump.

Benton then arranged for Vasilenko to attend a join Trump-RNC fundraiser in Philadelphia, where the Russian took a picture with the soon-to-be president. Vasilenko used the photos to burnish his reputation in Russia “including speaking on Russian TV about President-elect Trump and his attitudes toward Russia.”

Benton — who was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for other campaign finance crimes in the final weeks of Trump’s term — was convicted by a jury in late 2022 of six felonies related to the contribution and falsified campaign finance records. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, sentenced Benton to 18 months in prison, and records indicate he is due for release in June. Both Ron and Rand Paul — the former Texas representative and current Kentucky senator, respectively — wrote letters on Benton’s behalf at sentencing, decrying the impact that a jail sentence would have on his family.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/19/trump-russian-money-appeals-court-00153339

Months before his criminal trial started, former President Donald Trump stood before Black conservatives in South Carolina and made a direct appeal to African American voters with a provocative — and, critics said, racist — theme: Like you, I’m unfairly persecuted by the criminal justice system.

It was just the beginning of a highly calculated effort by Trump to cut into President Joe Biden’s standing with a constituency that historically has been among the Democratic Party’s most reliable voting blocs.


Three officials with the Trump campaign outlined to POLITICO the former president’s strategy to attract Black voters throughout the trial and beyond, revealing an in-depth look into their game plan as they ramp up campaigning ahead of November.

According to Trump’s advisers, the former president and his campaign will use his legal troubles — and issues of race in New York more broadly — to appeal to Black voters by suggesting that Trump, a 77-year-old white man from a family of privilege and with a history of offensive rhetoric, is beset by the same injustices that afflict Black Americans.

He’ll make targeted pitches to voters of color during campaign-style stops in and around the city, including in historically Black neighborhoods like Harlem. And they say he’ll attempt to turn the city’s migrant crisis into a wedge issue to attract Black voters bitter at local Democratic officials who approved millions in resources to support newly arriving immigrants instead of their communities.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/20/trump-trial-black-voters-00153462

Speaker Mike Johnson ultimately succeeded in passing foreign aid Saturday, after months of fierce infighting over sending additional funds to Ukraine.

Whether he can survive a looming effort to boot him from the speakership still remains to be seen.


Johnson had plowed ahead with the votes to send money to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan despite rising conservative anger — passing every part of the foreign aid plan with widespread Democratic help. Some Republicans are openly entertaining the idea of backing the ouster threat led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), but those already backing the effort opted to wait on triggering the vote. Instead, they indicated members should go back home and hear from their constituents.

That could go two ways for Johnson. Tempers could cool as lawmakers return to their districts for a week and focus on their constituents and reelection bids. Or members, particularly in deep-red districts, hear more from an angry base — prompting more members to entertain action against Johnson.

Greene and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, the second Republican to back ousting Johnson, are betting it’s the latter. And they reiterated their promises on Saturday that Johnson will ultimately face a choice: resign or face a referendum.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/20/johnson-mvp-house-foreign-aid-00153497

By the end of the first week of his criminal trial, Donald Trump had never looked more frustrated.

Confined to a worn, burgundy leather chair for hours on end — without social media to scroll or a throng of associates to entertain him — the former president listened to average New Yorkers give their opinions of him. He weathered admonishments from the bench. He complained at the courthouse about the temperature in the room (“freezing”) and, on Friday, his gag order (“They’re taking away my constitutional rights to speak — and that includes speaking to you,” he said to reporters).


And when he got time away from the courtroom — posing in front of a wall of potato chip bags at a Harlem bodega (“a beautiful place,” he called it) and dining with the Polish president at Trump Tower — Trump still took to posting online about the trial, grumbling on his day off not only about “Stupid Jimmy Kimmel,” but about the jury selection process.

For the first time in months, despite his many legal entanglements in New York and elsewhere, it was Trump, not his opponent, President Joe Biden, who seemed to have been thrown off balance, constrained by a judge’s schedule and gag orders as he whipsawed between the courtroom and the functions of his campaign.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/20/trump-trial-presidential-campaign-costs-00153446

As Trump’s Republican allies in the United States Congress block military aid that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Kyiv desperately needs to avoid defeat in its war with invading Russian forces, it’s clear the former U.S. president’s ill will toward Ukraine has deep roots.

It was, after all, a phone call with Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment in December 2019, after he was accused of seeking to influence the 2020 election by leaning on the Ukrainian leader to investigate current President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

There’s every sign the country is still preying on his mind. When Congress moved this month to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — legislation governing the surveillance of suspected international adversaries — Trump took to social media to object.

“KILL FISA,” he posted on Truth Social. “IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS.”
That Trump was likely referring to the wiretapping of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is unlikely to have gone unnoticed in Ukraine, where officials are watching the U.S. presidential election campaign for signs of what it could mean for their war effort.

https://www.politico.eu/article/why-donald-trump-hates-ukraine-us-congress-kyiv-war/