JD Vance says Ukraine funding includes hidden impeachment clause against President Trump

In an op-ed published in the early hours on Monday, Senator JD Vance criticized the $95 million foreign aid package being considered by the Senate, the passage of which he said could see a second Trump term being "collateral damage."

"For months, I have been confident that Donald Trump would be reelected as president," Vance wrote in the American Conservative. "But this is how you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Republican establishment is going to war for more Ukraine money. They don’t care if a second Trump term is collateral damage."

Vance noted that the bill includes a provision, a "kill switch for the next Trump presidency," in which funding for Ukraine would be required "well into the next presidential term." Vance explained earlier in the piece that the border security part of the bill, which was killed last week, would have constrained "Trump’s border enforcement if he was ever elected president."

"It gets worse," Vance continued. "Back in 2019, Democrats articulated a novel theory of impeachment, based on Trump’s refusal to spend money from the USAI - Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative."

Vance explained that five years later "they have drafted a new law that again requires Trump to spend money on Ukraine. If he negotiates an end to the war, as he has promised to do, they will undoubtedly argue that he has broken the law."

With less than a year before the 2024 election, "Ukraine-obsessive Republicans have already given the Democrats a predicate to impeach him. Slava Ukraini, America be damned."

Vance sent a memo to colleagues on Monday morning warning of this provision. He noted that "at the core" of Trump’s December 2019 impeachment was "a pause on funds appropriated to Ukraine."

The bill being considered in Congress includes $1.6 billion in foreign military financing for Ukraine, and $13.7 billion for the USAI, with the funds being set to expire around one year into the potential second Trump term, on September 30, 2025.

"If President Trump were to withdraw from or pause financial support for the war in Ukraine in order to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, 'over the objections of career experts,' it would amount to the same fake violation of budget law from the first impeachment, under markedly similar facts and circumstances."

"Partisan Democrats would seize on the opportunity to impeach him once again."

The bill being considered in the Senate includes $48 billion for Ukraine, $11 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, and nearly $5 billion for Taiwan. A $118 billion package was shot down last week, which included around $60 billion for Ukraine and just $20 billion for border security.