WASHINGTON — Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) is none too pleased with President Trump’s approach to negotiations meant to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion of Ukraine — and he doesn’t care who knows it.
He also doesn’t mind if he’s alone.
“I feel so strongly about it, I just don’t care,” Bacon, 61, said in a recent interview with The Post during which he described Trump, 78, as taking “a pro-Russian view” to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
“He has been very weak on Ukraine,” said Bacon, a five-term congressman and member of the House Armed Services Committee, “and he’s been a bit of an appeaser to Russia.”
The Republican also roasted some of his colleagues, saying they had fallen for “propaganda” depicting the Kyiv government as a fraud-riven sinkhole for US taxpayer money.
“You got some folks who buy into the same propaganda that I think that the Russians use,” he said.
Republican support for US aid to Ukraine has been shrinking, and GOP lawmakers rallied to the White House after Trump and Vice President JD Vance sparred with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office Feb. 28.
Some, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, celebrated Trump’s treatment of the Ukrainian president as “an American President putting America first.”
Republican Reps. Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Greg Steube of Florida were some of the elected officials who joined Johnson’s sentiment — while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for the possible replacement of Zelensky.
But Bacon said the spat marked a “bad day for America’s foreign policy.”
“Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon said on X after the unprecedented spat in front of the world’s media.
Bacon theorized Trump’s approach to Ukraine may have “psychological underpinnings” due to the fact that his first impeachment started with a 2019 phone call with Zelensky. Adding to that, the Nebraskan added, is the president’s innate draw to “strong people that are autocrats.”
“I’m a history guy. I’ve been reading history since I was in high school, and I read a lot of war history,” Bacon explained his stridency. “I studied the Soviet Union immensely in college, and I was also an intelligence guy studying the Soviet Union for a good chunk of my career.
“Ultimately, I’m a Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, Eisenhower-type Republican. I believe that America should stand for freedom, free markets, rule of law, and when a country like Russia invades its neighbor, I don’t think we can be silent.
“It’s clear to me Putin wants to regain [the Soviet Union’s] old borders,” he went on. “They do not see Ukraine as an independent people.”
With the February 2022 invasion, Bacon added, Putin demonstrated that he “wants to stamp out their history, their culture, their language. He’s also weak in Russia, and he can’t stand the thought of Ukraine wanting to build the West.”
Trump has brought together US, Russian and Ukrainian officials to begin peace negotiations in separate meetings in Saudi Arabia, placing himself as a mediator between the two countries.
While Russia has agreed in principle to stop operations against energy facilities and in the Black Sea — the missiles have continued to fall.
The president has said he’s open to visiting Moscow to meet with Putin and begin trilateral negotiations with Ukraine, but no timeline has been scheduled.
Bacon said he wishes Trump “would play hardball on Russia, not Ukraine. Russia is doing the invasion, why are we treating Zelensky as the bad guy?”
The Nebraskan is joined by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) as vocal Republican Ukraine boosters — and holds out hope that others could follow suit.
“I think that this is a work in progress,” Bacon said. “And I think people like me can speak the truth on this stuff and maybe over time, gain traction.”
The White House did not respond to an inquiry from The Post.
