WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement after President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress:
“President Trump’s address this evening laid bare a cynical and profoundly dangerous approach to America’s global leadership. His 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada—our closest trading partners—threaten to unravel decades of economic cooperation and will inevitably result in economic consequences for American workers and businesses. Our allies are watching and the message is clear: this administration is willing to compromise long-standing strategic partnerships for short-sighted political gains.
“The dismantling of critical foreign assistance programs, which President Trump boasted about tonight, is not a shift in policy—it is a self-inflicted wound that will directly empower our adversaries like China and Russia to fill the vacuum that the U.S. has left behind. Until last month, foreign assistance programs were monitoring diseases like Ebola and Bird Flu, preventing illegal weapons and drugs, like fentanyl, from getting into the wrong hands and stemming the radicalization of young people by terror groups like ISIS in Syria. Today, because of President Trump and Elon Musk, these programs have gone dark. For some, their fate remains unclear, leaving our country vulnerable.
“President Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine represents more than a diplomatic misstep—it is a moral and strategic failure to stop supporting an ally that is fighting on the frontlines of freedom and democracy. By signaling to murderous dictator Putin that territorial aggression can go unchecked, President Trump not only betrays Ukraine, but sends a message to China about their own territorial ambitions regarding Taiwan. These actions threaten to put our NATO Allies in the crosshairs.
“Congress must stand resolute. As Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I will work to uncover and highlight the adverse effects of these policies. We cannot allow these dangerous proposals to dismantle the strategic alliances that have been the cornerstone of American global leadership and national security.”
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