US Politics
Republican lawmaker slams Trump over Ukraine and warns of damaged ‘legacy’: ‘First to surrender’
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Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon lambasted Donald Trump over his proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, warning it could be the president’s “legacy.”
The president’s 28-point peace plan has been criticized as being favorable to Moscow, demanding Kyiv cede additional territory, limit the size of its military, and agree to never join NATO. Trump has asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept the proposal by Thanksgiving.
Bacon was one of several GOP lawmakers to criticize the peace plan. “They’re pushing a surrender plan on Ukraine and one that will keep Ukraine vulnerable to Russian attacks in the decades to come. It looks like Russia wrote it,” he wrote in a social media post Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Tennessee lawmaker posted an image on X with the words: “In the war between Ukraine and Russia, the first to surrender was America.” Bacon warned in the caption: “This will be President Trump’s legacy if he forces this surrender plan on Ukraine.”
Bacon, along with the bipartisan co-chairs of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, issued a statement rejecting the peace plan as “unacceptable.”
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“The proposed ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine appears to favor the interests of the aggressor — Dictator Vladimir Putin — over the sovereignty and security of a democratic Ukraine. That is unacceptable. This framework does not offer a genuine path to lasting peace, but instead, demands the surrender and capitulation of Ukraine to Russian aggression,” the group said.
They warned that accepting this proposal would “undermine European and NATO security, weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, and fail to address Russian aggression.”
Bacon joined several prominent lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in criticizing Trump’s proposal.
“Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool,” Kentucky GOP Senator Mitch McConnell wrote Friday. “If Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the only appropriate word to describe the president’s plan is “capitulation.”
“Let me be as clear as possible: Ukraine needs and deserves security guarantees, not one-sided concessions,” he added in a Saturday post. “Any serious peace deal must ensure Ukraine remains free and sovereign with the fullest ability to defend its territory.”
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The president told reporters Saturday that the peace plan was “not my final offer.” However, he warned that if Zelensky didn’t accept the plan by the deadline, “then he can continue to fight his little heart out.”
“I would like to get to peace. It should have happened a long time ago. The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened,” Trump said outside the White House. “One way or the other, we have to get it ended.”
Top U.S., Ukrainian and European officials will hold talks over the proposal at a summit in Geneva on Sunday, according to Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president said in a video Friday: “Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner, either the difficult 28 points, or a very difficult winter.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed the proposal. If Ukraine doesn’t agree to the plan, Russia would end the war “through military means, through armed struggle,” Putin said, according to NBC News.
