President Trump said Tuesday that he held up American aid to Ukraine that has become the subject of furious controversy because European countries have not paid their fair share to support the country, and pointed to the fact that the money was eventually released as evidence that he had done nothing wrong.
Trump has now fessed up to everything: he did hold up the aid to Ukraine and he did ask Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son. But he had reasons! He held up the aid because of the cheapskate Europeans and he asked for the investigation because he was very worried about political corruption in the US.
All the pieces are in place. All we need now is the whistleblower complaint, a transcript of the phone call, and all the evidence underlying them. Should be a piece of cake since Trump obviously has nothing to hide.
UPDATE: Just for the record, the European Union says it has “mobilised more than €15 billion in grants and loans to support the reform process in Ukraine” since 2014. This includes €500 million disbursed late last year for 2019. According to High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini this is “the largest support package in the history of the European Union.”
This compares to US aid of about $1.2 billion over the same period plus about $1 billion in military aid. In other words, the EU has already provided Ukraine with about eight times as much aid as the US over the past five years and will provide more than the US in 2019 as well.
