DeSantis: Protecting Ukraine is not a key US interest
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis does not think an American president should prioritize Ukraine's defense and rule out specific weapons.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an event Friday, March 10, 2023, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has sharply divided Republicans who are determined to defend Ukraine against Russia's military operation, saying in a statement released Monday night that protecting the European nation's borders is not a critical US interest and that policymakers should instead focus on domestic issues.
DeSantis' statement aligns him with former President Donald J. Trump, the party's frontrunner, according to NYT.
The venue DeSantis chose for his statement on a significant foreign policy issue revealed nearly as much as the statement itself, as the remark was made public during "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Fox News. DeSantis' statement was in response to a questionnaire sent last week by the host, Carlson, to all prominent prospective Republican presidential candidates, and it amounts to DeSantis' acknowledgment that a candidacy is in the works.
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DeSantis distanced himself on Carlson's show from Republicans who argue that the problem with Biden's Ukraine strategy is that it is insufficient. He made it clear that Biden is doing too much without a clear objective and taking actions that risk inciting conflict between the US and Russia.
“While the US has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness with our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said in a statement that Carlson read on his show.
DeSantis matches Trump's views on Ukraine
Regarding Ukraine's strategy, DeSantis now agrees with Trump. Carlson's questionnaire was also completed by the previous president.
Trump riffed again, saying that "both sides are weary and ready to make a deal" and that the "death and destruction must stop now." Trump has already stated that in a negotiated agreement, he would allow Russia to "take over" parts of Ukraine.
Blank check strategy
Republicans on Capitol Hill are increasingly using the "blank check" line to criticize Biden, while not appearing to forsake Ukraine. DeSantis, on the other hand, went further, stating that he does not think an American president should prioritize Ukraine's defense and rule out specific weapons.
“F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table,” he added. “These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable.”
DeSantis' remark was dripping with sarcastic disdain for policymakers who believe that removing Putin from power is the only way to "alleviate the suffering of the Ukrainian people," according to the NYT.
He said that “A policy of  ‘regime change’  in Russia, would greatly increase the stakes of the conflict, making  the use of nuclear weapons more likely." According to the NYT, such a policy would neither halt the war's death and devastation nor create a pro-American, Madisonian constitutionalist in the Kremlin.
DeSantis added, “We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland, especially as tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from narcotics smuggled across our open border and our weapons arsenals critical for our own security are rapidly being depleted.”
According to NYT, DeSantis, who has yet to formally announce he’s running for president, has largely avoided talking in specifics about Ukraine since the war in Ukraine began.
Read next: Support for Ukraine drives "identity crisis" among GOP: Politico
Last month, DeSantis expressed severe reservations about Joe Biden's Ukraine policy on "Fox & Friends," including a potential "proxy conflict" with Beijing and an open-ended war with no apparent strategic aim.
“Well, they have effectively a blank check policy with no clear strategic objective identified and these things can escalate. And I don’t think it’s in our interest to be getting into a proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea,” DeSantis said.
“So I think it would behoove them to identify what is the strategic objective that they’re trying to achieve. But just saying it’s an open-ended blank check, that is not acceptable,” he added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, DeSantis confessed that Russia was not a real threat.
He added that the willingness of Russia, and apparently China, to engage in Ukraine is a direct repercussion of the “weakness” of the Biden administration.
