Column: The Republican Party can’t decide if it’s for Ukraine or not

For years Joe Biden has told audiences, “This is not your father’s Republican Party.” He’s right. Russia’s year-old war on Ukraine is the crucible that will test which strain could come to define the 21st century Republican Party: its traditional internationalism or “America First” isolationism. But as Biden walked a Kyiv street with President Volodymyr Zelensky, with air-raid sirens screaming, former president and current candidate Donald Trump sent out a fundraising email headlined, “Biden puts Ukraine before America.” Hoping to pick the pockets of small donors in his America First corner, Trump charged that it was Biden who was fleecing them: “He loves sending your dollars to secure other countries’ borders, help other countries’ citizens.” Yet a competing message has come from a newly declared rival for the Republican nomination, former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. She told NBC the U.S. should “give what he needs to win.” At a campaign appearance she said, “It’s not a war about Ukraine; this is about a war on freedom.” When Haley’s NBC inquisitor noted that she differed with Trump on that, Haley reflexively said her only difference was with Biden. And while DeSantis didn’t expressly oppose continued help for Ukraine, he did seem to play down the stakes: “It’s important to point out the fear of Russia going into NATO countries … is not even coming close to happening.” Yes, well, that’s because Russia has been bogged down in Ukraine, thanks to the brave nation’s forces and Western help.