LATIKA M BOURKE: Senior Republican, Mitch McConnell, blasts Trump advisors for ‘restraining’ AUKUS decision

One of the Republican Party’s most senior figures has blasted the “self-indulgent restrainers” inside the Trump Administration, querying AUKUS.

Veteran Republican Mitch McConnell, who served as Senate party leader for 18 years and is a Senator for the state of Kentucky, said that President Donald Trump was having to continually mop up after the messes made by internal restrainers.

He did not name anyone specifically, but was commenting on President Trump’s pledge to restart supplies of weapons to Ukraine, which had been halted by the Pentagon’s Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Elbridge Colby.

The Pentagon has described as “flat out wrong” a report by US Politico claiming that Mr Colby’s decision to pause munitions to Ukraine, after conducting an internal review of supplies, caught President Trump’s allies by surprise.

Mr Trump said this week he would restart sending weapons to Ukraine.

Last month, it emerged Mr Colby had launched a snap “America First” review into AUKUS which US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said was to determine whether the plan to sell Australia nuclear-powered submarines fit with President Trump’s priorities.

That report is due any day.

But in a sign of growing pushback against Mr Colby’s decision-making, Senator McConnell lambasted both the decision to stop munitions to Ukraine, as well as the review into AUKUS, as “staff messes”.

“Today, the strategic incoherence of underfunding our military and restricting lethal assistance to partners like Ukraine is measured in the avoidable erosion of American credibility with allies and the mounting deaths of innocents,” Senator McConnell said in a statement.

“I’m glad that President Trump wants to resume deliveries of lethal capabilities to Ukraine.

“America’s policy of providing lethal support to Ukraine began during his first term, and likely helped deter earlier Russian escalation.

“This time, the President will need to reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his Administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons.

“And he should disregard those at the Department of Defence who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions production.

“The self-indulgent policymaking of restrainers – from Ukraine to AUKUS – has so often required the President to clean up his staff’s messes.”

The Pentagon has not said if it will release the results of the review, but the growing pushback against Mr Colby underlines the divisions within the Trump Administration.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said last week that “some assistance provided to Ukraine — as well as assistance to other nations — is on pause as the Defence Department reviews its own capabilities”.

The statement was applauded as “America First, common sense” by Mr Hegseth. Mr Colby reposted Mr Hegseth’s post on social media platform X with an emoji depicting the American flag and later said that he was “proud to be part of the team under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s America First, common-sense leadership.

But Mr Trump appeared to override the pair when he said on Monday that the US was going to have to send Ukraine more weapons.

Later that night, the Pentagon released a statement that said: “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defence will send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace.”

Mr Trump told a televised meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday that he was angry with Russian President Vladimir Putin because he won’t stop fighting.

“I’m not happy with Putin, I can tell that you right now, because he’s killing a lot of people,” he said.

“We get a lot a bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth.

“He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.

“Putin is not treating human beings right. He’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve approved that,” Trump added.

He has warmed to the idea of sending Ukraine Patriot missiles and Axios reported that he would send ten.

Asked who ordered the pause, the President said: “I don’t know, you tell me.”