UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron met with former President Donald Trump on Monday before the top British envoy headed to Washington, DC, to call on Congress to pass further military aid for Ukraine.
A UK rep told The Post that the evening meeting with Trump was part of a “routine international engagement” with US presidential candidates and other allies but did not discuss details of the pair’s conversation.
“The Foreign Secretary is on his way to Washington, DC, where he will hold discussions with US Secretary of State Blinken, other Biden administration figures, and members of Congress,” the representative added.
“His talks will focus on a range of shared US-UK priorities, including securing international support for Ukraine and bringing stability to the Middle East.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has withheld a $95 billion national security supplemental bill, which was already passed by the Senate, from a floor vote in the lower chamber for nearly two months, as US representatives worked on fiscal year 2024 spending bills in February and March.
Cameron last week called on European officials to pressure Johnson (R-La.) “to get that supplemental through,” telling reporters the effort “could most change the narrative about Ukraine.”
House Republicans have opposed the proposed $60 billion in additional funding for Kyiv’s war effort, arguing among other things that the bill doesn’t also include US border security provisions. Johnson has told Senate leaders his chamber would “work its own will” on the legislation.
President Biden, congressional Democrats, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have all called on the House speaker to push to pass the bill — even as Johnson faces the threat of his ouster over the move from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Johnson, who met with Cameron in December, has stood firm in his support for the military aid in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military, telling The Post in an interview last month that Russia’s aggression “wouldn’t stop in Ukraine.”
“If he was allowed, he’d go through, all the way, through Europe,” he said of Putin. “There is a right and wrong there — a good versus evil, in my view, and Ukraine is the victim here … They were invaded.
“We stand with good,” he affirmed.
As the House prepared to return after a spring recess, Johnson, 52, said in a Fox News interview earlier this month that he would bring the proposed Ukraine funding up for a vote “with some important innovations.”
Those changes may include paying for the military aid with the seized assets of Russian oligarchs or giving the money to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a loan — a proposal endorsed by Trump.
“We’re not just giving foreign aid — we’re setting it up in a relationship where they can provide it back to us when the time is right,” Johnson said last week on “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy.”
“And then, you know, we want to unleash American energy,” he said. “We want to have natural gas exports that will help unfund [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s war effort there.”
In February, Trump faced backlash after suggesting at a campaign rally that Russia — which invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 — could “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who are not contributing enough to their common defense.
Cameron was quick to criticize the former president at the time, telling Politico he was a “very strong supporter of NATO” and for Trump to alienate member states with his provocation was “not a sensible approach.”
House Republicans have yet to release the text of their bill, but a Capitol Hill source told The Post on Monday that it is expected to have a topline funding amount of $60 billion.
Cameron is scheduled to hold a press conference Tuesday at the State Department to discuss his efforts to secure the funding.