Time for a Reset: The New Congress Should Renew American Support for Ukraine

Jeff Robbins on Nov 3, 2026

After former President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, was being urged by Democrats to name Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy as his vice-presidential running mate in the 1964 election. Problem was, Johnson despised Kennedy, and was going to make him his vice president after hell had frozen over.

Johnson knew he needed to mask his personal animus toward Kennedy, and he found a way of doing just that. He announced that he had ruled out picking anyone in his Cabinet as his running mate, which just happened to include the Attorney General. "I'm sorry I took so many nice fellows over the side with me," quipped Kennedy when the news broke.

Last month, questioned about his rejection of any aid to Israel even though Israelis are under siege by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran, Michigan Democrat Abdul el-Sayed came up with a way of handling the question that would have made Lyndon Johnson proud. "I don't think we should be funding foreign militaries generally," he said, thereby throwing Ukrainians trying to defend themselves from Russia under the bus along with Israel. Israeli officials might well have telephoned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to apologize for taking him over the side with them.

What's never been clear is why humanitarian aid for civilian populations suffering from war and starvation can be so clearly an American moral imperative -- which it has always been and rightly so -- but aid to countries trying to defend their civilian populations from massacres and subjugation to invaders is somehow an immoral use of taxpayers' dollars.

El-Sayed is not the only popular figure, of course, who finds himself opposing aid to Ukraine. Tucker Carlson, the popular, amoral influencer who swings fringe right and fringe left, has also been vocal in his opposition to lifting a finger for Ukraine.

With a new Congress about to be seated in January, it's an occasion for a national reset in the form of a renewal of our commitment to ensure that the brave people of Ukraine are equipped with what they need to defend themselves against their Russian invaders. Since President Donald Trump took office, thanks to his powerful personal affinity for Vladimir Putin and his disdain for Putin's Ukrainian victims, American aid to Ukraine has dropped by approximately 99%. Though the European democracies have stepped up their assistance, the embattled Ukrainians still face a serious shortfall. A Congress that has been under Trump's thumb has done nothing to help Ukraine while Trump has done plenty to hurt it.

The president has encouraged Putin to continue his military siege and has deprived Ukraine of what it needs to repel Moscow's much larger military forces. The Ukrainians are being choked by the loss of early warning intelligence about Russian ballistic missile attacks, and by disruptions of its Starshield and Starlink internet service, just coincidentally operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Wall Street Journal has credibly reported that Musk ordered the disruptions after discussions with Trump. Whether Trump ordered that Ukraine be rendered defenseless against Russian missiles should be on what is undoubtedly going to be a long list of congressional investigations begging to be opened by the new Congress.

But it isn't just congressional hearings that are necessary. Ukrainian stockpiles of interceptors vital to its defense have been close to depleted, and Ukraine is short of other weapons and weapons systems crucial to the protection of its people. We cannot conscionably permit that. The new Congress needs to pass legislation that is veto-proof, providing for Ukraine's defense, immediately, and whether Donald Trump likes it or not.

In December 1940, Franklin Roosevelt gave Americans a fireside chat. "The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting," Roosevelt told the country. "They ask us for the implements of war ... which will enable them to fight for their liberty and so for our security." Europe recognizes what only fools and isolationists here do not: in resisting Russian efforts to subjugate a sovereign country, Ukrainians are fighting for us, for those who come after us, and for American security. Hopefully, a new Congress will right the ship of American policy toward Ukraine, a ship which is presently badly off course.

Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States Attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment and a longtime columnist, he writes on politics, national security, human rights and the Middle East.