Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
Politico is out with a really attention-grabbing report after it obtained a report exhibiting steering from new Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It says that — opposite to experiences on the time — that yestrday’s government order from Trump will lower off international assist to Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted spending Friday on most present international assist grants for 90 days. The order, which shocked State Division officers, seems to use to funding for navy help to Ukraine.
Rubio’s steering, issued to all diplomatic and consular posts, requires division staffers to situation “stop-work orders” on almost all “present international help awards,” in response to the doc, which was obtained by POLITICO. It’s efficient instantly.
My guess right here is that Politico received one thing mistaken or there’s some confusion on the State Dept as a result of this goes straight towards what they had been saying.
The brand new steering means no additional actions can be taken to disperse assist funding to packages already permitted by the U.S. authorities, in response to three present and two former officers acquainted with the brand new steering.
Rubio has been a supporter of Ukraine and a hawk from the start so it will be an odd twist from him as nicely. That stated, Trump these days has talked about pressuring Ukraine to simply accept some type of peace.
