By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several congressional Republicans are sharply criticizing President Donald Trump’s White House over its handling of a proposed peace plan for Ukraine that they say favors Russia, a sharp departure for a party that has stuck closely to nearly all of Trump’s initiatives.
Ukrainian advocates have worried that a US-based 28-point framework to end the war in Ukraine, first reported last week, means the Trump administration may be ready to push Kyiv to sign a peace deal heavily tilted towards Moscow.
“This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am very skeptical that it will achieve peace,” Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement on Friday.
Those fears were heightened when Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, in an Oct. 14 phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political aide, Yuri Ushakov, said they should work together on a cease-fire plan and that Putin should raise it with Trump.
WITKOFF ‘CANNOT BE TRUSTED’: REPRESENTATIVE
“For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign and democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff strongly favors the Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. A Russian paid agent doing less than him? He should be fired,” said Republican Representative X Don Bacon.
While Trump’s party remains heavily behind him, criticism from Republican lawmakers is notable, given the president’s recent setbacks, including Democratic electoral victories this month and Congress backing the release of Justice Department files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome Trump has fought for months.
Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick called for a change in approach, describing the call on social media as “a huge problem. And one of the many reasons why these ridiculous sideshows and secret meetings need to stop.”
Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate leader, suggested that Trump may need to find new advisers. “Rewarding the Russian butcher would be disastrous for America’s interests,” he said in a statement.
PUSHBACK FROM THE TRUMP CIRCLE
Members of Trump’s inner circle pushed back against lawmakers.
Vice President JD Vance, a former Republican senator who has criticized aid to Ukraine, accused McConnell of making a “ridiculous attack” on the plan to end the war.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said on social media that McConnell was “just bitter and attacking my father.”
But the attacks from members of Trump’s own party, along with recent political headwinds, could point to a bigger problem for the administration, analysts said.
“All of this suggests that he is much more vulnerable politically than he has appeared for the last nine, 10 months,” said Scott Anderson, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
Moreover, with opinion polls showing that most Americans want to support Ukraine as it fights Russian invaders, Republicans are likely to look to the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake, and many Republican candidates in tight races will have to appeal to independent voters.
Some of the strongest criticism has come from Republicans like Bacon and McConnell, who are not running for re-election, but Anderson said they are saying publicly what others are saying in private meetings.
“They are so vocal, they are so targeted … It almost certainly reflects a private element of messaging from the part of the party they represent,” said Anderson.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Rod Nickel)