How to get Trump to agree to foreign aid: A loan, with a country's natural resources as collateral
Working to salvage an aid package to Ukraine, GOP senators pitched an idea to Trump that they thought he’d like: The U.S. would give the country a loan that would be backed in some fashion by Ukrainian rare earth minerals worth trillions.
WASHINGTON — Working to salvage an aid package to Ukraine, Republican senators pitched an idea to former President Donald Trump that they thought he’d like: Instead of a grant, the U.S. would give the country a loan that would be backed in some fashion by Ukrainian rare earth minerals worth trillions of dollars.
GOP lawmakers knew they needed Trump’s support if they were to ensure the ex-president wouldn’t use his clout in Congress to sink the aid package that Ukraine needed to fend off Russia’s invasion.
That specific plan didn’t make it into the final legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law last month. Ukraine received a loan rather than a grant — meeting Trump’s threshold requirement — though there was no mention of the country’s minerals as a potential means of repayment.
Still, Trump liked the concept, GOP lawmakers who spoke to him said, and if he wins the election, some envision a new model taking hold in which the U.S. structures foreign aid not as grants, but instead as loans with countries putting up natural resources or other valuable assets as collateral.
“If Trump wins, you’ll see more of this, not less,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., one of the senators who spoke to Trump about the aid package. “This will be a new way of delivering aid. I’ve learned from these long, drawn-out conflicts that the public gets weary. So it’s past time to be creative.”
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