Why a Republican Is Publicly Standing Up to Trump – Bacon’s Warning, McConnell’s Sentence and the Situation of the Refugees

Don Bacon has done something that is almost risky in today’s Republican Party. He publicly criticized the sitting president. Not in a roundabout way, not as a side remark, but sharply and unmistakably. For him, the capitulation plan for Ukraine is not a path to peace, but the moment when the United States would be the first to give up. And Bacon is not someone who usually makes grand gestures. Perhaps that is what makes his words so heavy. The plan demands the surrender of further territory, a reduced army and the abandonment of NATO membership. In addition, it includes an amnesty for war crimes, a point that feels like salt in open wounds in places like Bucha. Bacon calls it a “blackmail attempt.” The text, he says, looks “as if Russia had written it.” And he warns that this will become Trump’s legacy if he forces this path.

GOP Senator Mike Rounds, Republican: “Rubio actually called us this afternoon, and he made it unmistakably clear that we are merely recipients of a proposal that was handed to one of our representatives. It is NOT our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.” (From our short news)

He is not alone in this view. Mitch McConnell, the gray eminence of the Republicans, says openly that Putin has “made a fool of Trump for the entire year.” If the president is more focused on satisfying Moscow than on seeking a real solution, he must take consequences and replace his advisors. For someone of his reach, that is a remarkable sentence, and a sign of how deep the unrest already runs.

While Washington debates whether one may strip a pressured nation of the foundations of its future, another problem is growing in parallel, one that has now also landed on our desks and is hardly manageable anymore. Nearly 200,000 Ukrainian refugees in the United States are sliding into a situation that worsens by the day. Many came through humanitarian programs, work, pay taxes, their children attend American schools, and now they face the risk of losing everything.

Work permits are expiring or are not being renewed. Applications are stalled or return with new requirements that are almost impossible to meet. Families report that they are slipping into a dangerous limbo through no fault of their own. Some employers no longer know whether their Ukrainian employees are even allowed to continue working. Others have had to issue terminations because the authorities are taking too long. It is a situation that can spiral out of control in just a few weeks. We are trying to integrate this additional task into our already overloaded work. It may happen that reports are delayed because these cases, alongside investigations and ICE, have long exceeded our capacities.

Bacon’s warning, McConnell’s sentence and the situation of the refugees show three sides of the same development: A president is pushing an attacked country toward capitulation, his own party is beginning to doubt loudly, and people who relied on protection are losing their security under the same administration. The capitulation plan may be sold as a “solution.” In reality, it shows how close the United States is to giving up responsibility while others would pay the price.