Biden Proposes $2 Billion Boost to NASA’s Budget
by David Bullock
Staff Writer
The White House has proposed hiking NASA’s budget by nearly $2 billion to $26 billion for fiscal year 2023 as the space agency gears up for an uncrewed flight test of a new rocket and spacecraft designed to help return astronauts to the moon for the first time in 50 years.
More than half the 7.7 percent increase – $1.1 billion – would go to NASA’s exploration budget, which aims to land the first woman and first person of color at the lunar south pole under the Artemis program later this decade. The program includes $1.5 billion for the Human Landing System (HLS) that will take the two astronauts to and from the lunar surface. The proposal represents an increase of $290 million over FY 2022.
The budget proposal comes as NASA begins a dress rehearsal of its first Space Launch System/Orion flight test at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The uncrewed Orion spacecraft will fly to the moon in the Artemis I mission. A crewed flight test would follow in 2024, with a landing set for no earlier than 2025.
The exploration budget also includes $161.3 million for research and development of systems to take astronauts to Mars. Most of the funding — $121 million — is focused on deep-space habitation systems.
Space Operations, which includes the International Space Station (ISS), is up $225 million this year to a proposed budget of $4.27 billion. The amount includes $1.3 billion for space station operations and nearly $1.8 billion for space transportation.
NASA 2023 Proposed Budget
(in thousands of dollars)
| Account | FY 22 Enacted | FY 23 Proposed | Difference | Percent Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exploration | $6,791.7 | $7,478.3 | $686.6 | 9.6% |
| Orion | $1,406.7 | $1,338.7 | -$68.0 | 5.0% |
| Space Launch System | $2,600.0 | $2,579.8 | -$20.2 | -0.8% |
| Exploration Ground Systems | $590.0 | $749.9 | $159.9 | 23.9% |
| Exploration Other | $2,195.0 | $2,809.9 | $614.9 | 24.6% |
| Aeronautics | $880.7 | $971.5 | $90.8 | 9.8% |
| Space Technology | $1,100.0 | $1,437.9 | $337.9 | 26.6% |
| Science | $7,614.4 | $7,988.3 | $373.9 | 4.8% |
| Earth Science | $2,064.7 | $2,411.5 | $346.8 | 15.5% |
| Planetary Science | $3,120.4 | $3,160.2 | $39.8 | 1.3% |
| Astrophysics | $1,568.9 | $1,556.0 | -$12.9 | -0.8% |
| Heliophysics | $777.9 | $760.2 | -$17.7 | -2.3% |
| Biological and Physical Sciences | $82.5 | $100.4 | $17.9 | 19.6% |
| Space Operations | $4,041.3 | $4,266.3 | $225.0 | 5.4% |
| STEM Engagement | $137.0 | $150.1 | $13.1 | 9.1% |
| Safety, Security & Mission Service | $3,020.6 | $3,208.7 | $188.1 | 6.0% |
| Construction and Environmental | $410.3 | $424.3 | $14.0 | 3.4% |
| Inspector General | $45.3 | $48.4 | $3.1 | 6.6% |
| TOTAL | $24,041.3 | $25,973.8 | $1,932.5 | 7.7% |
Space Operations also includes $224 million in funding for the development of commercial space stations that NASA plans to use when ISS is decommissioned. That amount represents an increase of $101 million from the current budget.
NASA’s science budget would be increased by $373.9 million to just under $8 billion. The majority of the increase — $346.8 million — would be devoted to Earth science. Battling climate change is a major priority for the Biden Administration.
The joint Mars Sample Return mission with the European Space Agency (ESA) would receive $822 million. This number was unchanged by the White House, even after the recent decision to split the Sample Retrieval Lander into two separate landers and now launch in 2028, instead of 2026.
The science budget would also provide:
- $486 million for the Lunar Discovery and Exploration program which partners with industry to deliver to the Moon instruments and other payloads, including the VIPER mission, a lunar rover to investigate volatiles on the South Pole of the Moon;
- $230 million for investments in a competitive Discovery program, including newly selected missions to Venus;
- Continued funding for the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s frozen moon, Psyche mission to a metal rich asteroid, and the Dragonfly aerial vehicle that will explore Saturn’s moon, Titan; and
- $88 million to maintain support for the Planetary Defense Program to study near-Earth objects, detection and mitigation, including the Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission for launch no earlier than 2028.
Space technology is seeking more than $1.4 billion, an increase of $338 million over the $1.1 billion provided for FY 2022. The proposal includes:
- $525 million to conduct ground-based testing and space flight technology demonstrations on new technologies, including: orbital refueling, cryogenic fluid management, fission surface power, solar electric propulsion, small spacecraft technologies;
- $472 million to mature advance disruptive exploration technologies;
- $156 million for early-stage innovation technology and partnerships;
- $285 million for the Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer programs to leverage the nation’s innovative small business community.
Aeronautics would receive $971.5 million, an increase of $90.8 million over the current budget. The funding would include:
$289 million for integrated aviation systems to support the X-59 low boom supersonic flight demonstrator, X-57 Maxwell all-electric aircraft, and early designs of a sustainable flight demonstrator;
$253 million for advanced air vehicles to conduct research to meet the nation’s growing long-term civil aviation needs such as more efficient aircraft and propulsion technologies to reduce carbon emissions from aviation;
• $156 million for transformative aero concepts to support revolutionary aviation concepts, including research on zero-emissions aviation; and,
• $156 million for airspace operations and safety to work with the Federal Aviation Administration to modernize and transform the national air traffic management system; and,
• $117 million for aerosciences evaluation and test capabilities to support critical national ground test infrastructure.
NASA’s STEM Engagement budget would receive $150.1 million, an increase of $13.1 million over the current amount.
38 responses to “Biden Proposes $2 Billion Boost to NASA’s Budget”
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curious if it stays in somewhat doubtful
Agreed – not an uncommon situation to see things shake out as much less than originally ‘expected’.
Think the level of funding will be about what the budget request ask for. What gets funded and at what level will likely to be much different.
NASA is still underfunded. Space Force too.
That would only shock someone with your near-unique gift for ignoring reality in favor of personal fantasy, though your woke progressive politics and galloping case of Trump Derangement Syndrome are also contributing factors.
You mean; Ignoring Reality in Favor of Personal Fantasy (IRIFPF), following Gary’s hilarious ? methodology of creating a pseudo acronym from a word salad, in the Mistaken Notion it Will Make him Look Smarter (MNWLS)?
you mean Trump the guy who said “there is a lot of love in Putin” ? that same guy?
Keeps insisting that the guy who built up the Russian armed forces into a Potemkin force that can’t conduct combined arms combat that can’t supply itself, and is halted by an army with 1/8th the Russian budget and who insisted that the nation he was going to invade was a gutless corrupt construct that would collapse as soon as Putin kicked in the front door is …. smart. Keeps saying it too. I think the verdict is in. Putin is a dolt who was stymied when he finally decided to beat on a mark with real ability and guts. He’s a dolt because he’s incapable of noticing when a mark is capable and brave. His own inability to see past his own deluded ideals doomed his inferior military to extreme malfunction. Anyone who thinks otherwise has some very questionable judgement skills.
There is a lesson here for top down authoritarians everywhere. The more incentive there is to tell the boss what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to know, the less likely the boss is to have a good bead on reality. Applies to nations, corporations, small business and even families. Or, when bad news has bad consequences, the boss doesn’t get the news.
Edit a few minutes later. Applies to voters as well. When 50%+1 don’t want to hear it, bad things happen.
The problem with national intelligence services as news sources is they are also agents of national policy. The US is not beyond emphasizing national policy over dispassionate reporting of facts as best as they can be determined. Iraq 2002/2003 comes to mind. And don’t forget the botched lessons learned reports and fake combat reports in Afghanistan that blinded us to creeping Taliban victory. But yes, for Russia this has been developing for a long time. If I were the Chinese I’d be looking really hard at my belly button right now. I think the world, esp the Western world owes a deep debt to Ukraine. The fallout from what is transpiring will play out in the Pacific as well. They’ve changed the trajectory of history as it had been advancing. I feel deeply indebted to them. I don’t hesitate to say Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes.
Yes, it’s reported Putin is cleaning house for getting bad advice.
https://www.understandingwa…
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment
Mason Clark, George Barros, and Kateryna Stepanenko
March 11, 5:30pm EST
“Putin reportedly fired several generals and arrested Federal Security Service (FSB) intelligence officers in an internal purge. Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov stated on March 9 that the Kremlin has replaced eight generals due to their failures in Ukraine, though ISW cannot independently verify this information.[21] Putin additionally detained several personnel from the FSB’s 5th Service, which is responsible for informing Putin about the political situation in Ukraine. The Federal Protective Service and 9th Directorate of the FSB (its internal security department) reportedly raided the 5th Service and over 20 other locations on March 11. Several media outlets reported that 5th Service Head Sergey Beseda and his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh are under house arrest on March 11.[22] Independent Russian media outlet Meduza claimed the 5th Service might have provided Putin with false information about the political situation in Ukraine ahead of his invasion out of fear of contradicting Putin‘s desired prognosis that a war in Ukraine would be a smooth undertaking.[23] Putin is likely carrying out an internal purge of general officers and intelligence personnel. He may be doing so either to save face after failing to consider their assessments in his own pre-invasion decision-making or in retaliation for faulty intelligence he may believe they provided him.”
So … In your opinion, is it the everyone’s fault but Putin’s? He just got some bad advise, that’s all. Otherwise he’s a pretty savvy guy right? Kinda like Trump praised all his cabinet members are “The best.” then fired a whole bunch of them as louses. Great judgement in people there. Really savvy.
You really enjoy trying to demonize folks don’t you? Just like Putin you try to position anyone who disagrees with your “wisdom” as your enemy…
What it simply shows is that Putin, like the former Paper Hanger in Berlin, surrounds himself with bootlickers who tells him what he wants to hear. Which makes the world a very dangerous place since there is no one brave enough to stop him from being stupid.
Cleaning house after creating the situation in the first place won’t work either. Get in trouble for stating unpleasant facts, or shade the facts and get urged when it bites. Recipe for the competent and honest to avoid the critical positions. One of the hazards of leadership is the people that work the leader instead of their jobs, often as a form of flattery. There are people that make careers out of these tactics.
this is probably disinformation ours
So you think Putin got good advice? But than, like Putin’s intelligence advisors, you did think that Ukraine would quickly fall like France…
Incidentally, this also calls into question just how quickly Taiwan would fall if Red China attacked. More likely it would be like the Ukraine with the added problem of Red China trying to move troops across an ocean instead of a land border.
kind of a run on sentence there so I am not sure who you are aiming at. lets play
“Keeps insisting that the guy who built up the Russian armed forces into a Potemkin force that can’t conduct combined arms combat that can’t supply itself, and is halted by an army with 1/8th the Russian budget”
Trump is the guy who said Putin had a lot of love in him 🙂 so are you banging on trump
as for the 1/8th the russian budget. the Taliban and Al Queda fought “us” the US to a standstill. so on a per budget category I am pretty sure we came out the “worst loser”
but again not sure what your point is.
” and who insisted that the nation he was going to invade was a gutless corrupt construct that would collapse as soon as Putin kicked in the front door is …. smart””
the guy who called the Ukrainian government corrupt is trump the thug. not sure where you are driving at here.
I got it wrong how long the Ukraine army would last, but have never said the government is corrupt. thats trump. you didnt think the Russians would invade
continue
“I think the verdict is in. Putin is a dolt who was stymied when he finally decided to beat on a mark with real ability and guts. He’s a dolt because he’s incapable of noticing when a mark is capable and brave. His own inability to see past his own deluded ideals doomed his inferior military to extreme malfunction. Anyone who thinks otherwise has some very questionable judgement skills.”
how do you see Putin’s campaign in Ukraine as compared to our glorious victories in Iraq and Vietnam and Afland?
curious fly safe
Oh goodness you have not been watching Russian TV the past 8 years. Russia’s thesis is that all the post 2014 governments in Ukraine have been run by neo-Nazis with rock star life styles who are supposed to have been stealing the Ukraine nation dry. Where do you think the GOP got all its rhetoric from during impeachment about how the Ukraine was involved in the 2016 election? That was all Russian copy that was fed the Russian people over years.
Go back thru the record, I was confident by Nov that it was going to happen, by Jan, I thought there was no way out for the Russians. Don’t forget I was calling for a Ukrainian mobilization, while the Russian based rhetoric that Biden was scare mongering to get Covid and inflation off the headlines was being adopted by the GOP. I thought the Russians would meet basic functional requirements of combined arms warfare and eventually prevail. I knew the Ukrainians would fight like hell at the individual level, I did not know they would be so brilliant.
I think Afghanistan has very strong echoes of Russia’s current malfunction. Our combat reporting in Afghanistan was so skewed even at the individual unit level, we were blind to Taliban victory and chose not to recognize that we and the government we installed were driving the Afghan population into the hands of the enemy. We see to this day Afghans are content to starve under the Taliban and don’t even dream of returning to the corruption they ate under. Iraq was started by deliberately telling the intel agencies that they were implements of policy and not information, then we lacked the scale to manage the occupation. The Russians will never get that far to see if there are parallels with Iraq, but the intelligence screw up in the prelude has parallels. Vietnam … The US had no concept of holding geography, was wiling to let the North keep harassing the government of S Vietnam while the gov of the North was not attacked or threatened in return. Also the US was content to fight the battles for the ARVN and never let them evolve into a real fighting force capable of protecting their nation. No relation to Afghanistan there, that was a totally different set of malfunctions. Tactically, I think the US in Vietnam was brilliant, strategically and politically it was deeply flawed.
Hello Andrew
“Oh goodness you have not been watching Russian TV the past 8 years. Russia’s thesis is that all the post 2014 governments in Ukraine have been run by neo-Nazis with rock star life styles who are supposed to have been stealing the Ukraine nation dry. Where do you think the GOP got all its rhetoric from during impeachment about how the Ukraine was involved in the 2016 election? That was all Russian copy that was fed the Russian people over years.”
this is one of the big lies that the folks on the fascist right, including trump seem to latch onto. Somewhere I am sure the minister of propaganda of the Third Reich is smiling. As you know they were trying to get the US to help them fight the evil godless commies 🙂
I tend to think that the US and Russian involvment in wars from Vietnam to the Ukraine are what “Imperial hubris” (its a good book written by a family member through marriage) . It is super powers thinking that their military allows them to defy political gravity by ignoring local politics. The only really thought out war since Korea has in my view been Bosnia…
But while I am pretty sure the Russian military is over rated (now wondering about the Chinese) one of the major problems is that “foreign teams” never do well fighting home teams who more or less hate them 🙂 and another one is that probably Russian and American war doctrine is a throw back to those halcyon days of WW2.
what has been perplexing and more than entertaining is how stuck the formerly “godless commie” GOP is with now loving the commies and embracing them. it just goes to show how far the social issues can work. See Lara Logan 🙂
The GOP loves Russia now because all the state enterprises wound up in the hands of individual men who became rich. Not boards of directors. Centralized individual authority is what they’re all about. They ignore that these now ‘private’ enterprises are effectively state granted monopolies with all the competition we have in cable television in the US 10 years ago, and that they get a lot of their capital from state coffers per a yearly economic plan. So in the view of the GOP Russia is no longer communist. In their favor has been the plight of the average Russian. Even under Putin the average Russian has done far better and has many many more freedoms.
Hubris is huge both in this failure and our recent failures. As I liked to say to my GOP brethren before I left the party, “The US is an exceptional nation, but it’s no so exceptional that it’s immune to its own stupidity and mistakes.”. If you remember the GOP took offense when Obama said the US was exceptional like all the other nations.
Andrew greetings
“Hubris is huge both in this failure and our recent failures. As I liked to say to my GOP brethren before I left the party, “The US is an exceptional nation, but it’s no so exceptional that it’s immune to its own stupidity and mistakes.”. If you remember the GOP took offense when Obama said the US was exceptional like all the other nations.”
well anything “the black guy” said had to be oppossed to American greatness. One of the things I learned as a student on the great university on the Brazos was that a sure way to get into trouble with the far right was to deny; god, exceptionalism or the role of the creator in any event. As one guy said at church when I was growing up “what are the odds that Hydrogen and Oxygen come together to form water…” and my reply was “under certain pressure and temps it has to work, thats science” … third rail.
the GOP right is now composed of those people in American politics who have always needed and sort of prospered under Plantation style politics. being told what to think and to do…to maintain their status in life, against the “lesser people” while lead by phony alpha males like well Trump comes to mind.
I am seeing today a lot of wishful thinking on the right. one of them of course is that humanity is going to branch out into space anytime now , as soon as Starship flies: 🙂
worse times are coming in Ukraine. if this was WW2 the Sumner welles mission has failed…and the show is just about to start
It is funny that you think space advocates are all Republicans given that it was President Kennedy and his new space frontier speech that inspired most of them. I expect if you took a survey you would find far more members of the Democratic Party among them than Republicans. But then you seem to think anyone who disagrees with your narrow political viewpoint is a Trump worshiping Republican…
not understanding how you come to that conclusion. I am a space advocate and a solid (for now) Democrat. ?
Saying that the belief that humanity will branch out is just wishful thinking on the part of the right…
A space advocate against any company making progress?? And for the ones retarding progress??
Most spaceX groupies are more or less right wingers in terms of the notion that Space is like the old American west. its not. its more like the ocean floor and no one lives there
Just in the Gulf of Mexico more people “live” but temporarily on the water than will live even temp in space over the next 50 years. there is a reason for it
No argument there and that why is the Space Settlement movement has been stagnant since the 1970’s. They see space as just a repeat of past frontiers and not a new one.
It won’t be millions, just a few thousand starting out in 1G communities on the Moon once there is an economic case for it. Before then tele-operated robots and a handful of human workers will start the process of lunar industrialization.
my view of it is similar. I think that “if” something can be found on the Moon that has value on earth or in some project that some national or multinational government does, then the mining is heavily robotic with a relatively small maintenance staff and probably small stay times…all at financial reward levels that recognize the life shortening events that are likely to occur AND the unique hazards of the job. I guess that is why I hope for solar power stations at some point. thats the only thing I can see makes that work
I think there is a better case for making electronic chips in high orbit from resources from the Moon. The basic raw materials are there, the manufacturing is highly automated and the vacuum/micro-gravity will produce chips of higher quality. The same for replacement organs. Key will be setting up private research labs without the red tape needed to get experiments on the ISS.
IF Starship works successfully a version could be used as an uncrewed micro-gravity lab, launching to LEO, doing the research for several months, and then returning the results to Earth.
https://www.popsci.com/fact…
The factories of the future could float in space
Orbital manufacturing is already paving the way for better solar
panels, faster internet, cleaner computer chips, and lab-grown human
hearts
By Andrew Rosenblum
|Published Apr 3, 2017 3:30 PM
Interesting article from the link, thanks. Potential for some seriously profitable applications that could change the economics of spaceflight both manned and automated. Would make a small bet that the real profit centers a half century from now are things not yet thought of.
we might be, at least some smart folks who I “buy into” believe that we are on the brink of a manufactoring revolution in LEO. from the artificial organ thing to semi conductors (yeah wake shield) to well a lot of things there is some smart folks (and some money) chasing that. I think when the first product “hits” the game is going to change. and then lunar materials might prove of value. I eagerly await that day 🙂
Sorry, I really hate to burst your bubbles, but actual survey data Does Not Support you views on the GOP vs Democrats. Indeed, Indeed, 11% more Republicans than Democratic voters think the US is providing too little aid to the Ukrainians.
https://www.pewresearch.org…
March 15, 2022
Public Expresses Mixed Views of U.S. Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
“While there are deep partisan divides in views of the administration’s response to the crisis, views on U.S. support to Ukraine are less divided. Nearly half of Republicans (49%) say the U.S. is providing too little support; 23% say it is providing about the right amount and 9% think the U.S. is giving Ukraine too much support.
Among Democrats, comparable shares say the U.S. is providing Ukraine about the right amount of support (39%) and too little backing (38%). Just 5% of Democrats say the U.S. is giving Ukraine too much support – roughly half the share of Republicans who say the same.”
Also Russia is not communist, they are following a version of Fascism more along the lines of the Third Reich than the old Soviet Union. Keep in mind that outside of political rhetoric Fascism is a specific type of government/economic system.
https://www.atlanticcouncil…
April 23, 2015
Is Putin’s Russia Fascist?
By Alexander J. Motyl
“But many Westerners fear the implications of calling a spade a spade. If
Putin’s Russia is fascist, then it is comparable to Hitler’s Germany and
Mussolini’s Italy and, thus, certifiably evil. And that means that calls for
understanding Putin amount to calls for understanding evil. So it’s better to pretend that Russia isn’t fascist. Hence the popularity of abstruse
designations like managed democracy and sovereign democracy or terms—such as Putinism—that only state the obvious.”
Right up to the invasion the GOP was saying Biden was posturing and pushing this crisis to deflect headlines from inflation and make up for Afghanistan. Yes of course the GOP says Biden is not doing enough, because in their view what they view as a mental retard is incapable of doing anything right. Of course they offer no ideas of their own as to what the balance should be, nor do they address at all about how wrong they were about the nature of this crisis in the prelude. Let’s face it, if Trump were in charge he would have given the Russian a written apology for accepting NATO members past the Cold War, declared the Ukrainian government a terrorist organization, cut off all funds and praised how ‘Smart’ Putin was in declaring his “Peace Keeping Mission”. He’d probably have said ….
“Here’s a guy that says, you know, ‘I’m gonna declare a big portion of
Ukraine independent.’ He used the word ‘independent,’ ‘and we’re gonna
go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta
say that’s pretty savvy,”—- Yup, that’s what I think he would have said. Pretty darn savvy those two men. One is the leader of Russia, one is the leader of the GOP.
Again, your beliefs are not supported by the survey data I posted nor how the Democrats acted before the invasion… But than you seem to still falsely believe that Trump represents the views of the GOP… I guess like Robert you have fun dividing the nation with your Rhetoric.
https://www.nytimes.com/202…
Unable to Agree on Russia Sanctions Bill, Senate Settles for a Statement
By Catie Edmondson
Feb. 18, 2022
“Republicans and Democrats squabbled about that question for weeks. In January, Democrats scuttled an effort by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2, the Russian gas pipeline, arguing that imposing such measures before an invasion would give up key leverage that United States officials needed in diplomatic talks with Russia. Pressing a case made by the White House, they also said it would alienate Germany when demonstrating European unity against Moscow’s aggression was crucial.”
and
“The sanctions against Russia that would be imposed as a consequence of its actions and Russia’s threatened response to those sanctions could result in massive economic upheaval — with impacts on energy, banking, food and the day-to-day needs of ordinary people throughout the entire world,” Mr. Sanders said in a speech from the Senate floor last week.
That argument has also been adopted by some progressives in the House.”
And than there is the statement the “progressive” Democrat’s posted on the invasion.
https://www.dsausa.org/stat…
On Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
February 26, 2022
“DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict. We call on antiwar activists in the US and across the world to oppose violent escalations, demand a lasting diplomatic solution, and stress the crucial need to accept any and all refugees resulting from this crisis. Much of the next ten years are coming into view through this attack. While the failures of neoliberal order are clear to everyone, the ruling class is trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism, and war. Socialists have a duty to build an alternative.
No war but class war.”
Smart members of the GOP are indeed running from Trump who still can’t stop mentioning how smart Putin is. He’s toxic now. The survey data measures GOP thought AFTER the invasion and AFTER the Ukrainians have proven themselves. That’s when it’s easy. Guess what’s coming this summer? All those speeches during impeachment about how corrupt the Ukraine is about how they’re nothing but a bunch of thieves and how they should defend their corrupt selves by themselves. The GOP conversion is humiliating when viewed in the light of their stance on Ukraine from the first impeachment era.
And the Democrats encouraged it when President Obama basically did nothing after Putin occupied the Crimea, which is probably why Putin waited until President Biden was elected thinking it would be the same response, but than both parties have been mishandling Putin since he took power failing to recognize what he was. But Trump doesn’t speak for the GOP anymore than Senator Sanders speaks for the Democrats.
Remember, many in the Republican Party still see Trump for what he is, a former Democrat and friend of Bill Clinton who stole the primary from them in 2016. As I said before, he was elected simply because folks voted against Hillary Clinton.
Past Ukrainian governments were certainly corrupt. But I suspect most of the corrupt government types departed in late Feb. to visit their ill-gotten gains in various bank secrecy jurisdictions. The current government wouldn’t attract grifters as there’s little or nothing to steal until the war is resolved.
Trump has a long history of soft-soaping people he expects to be working with again.