The Trump administration is closing in on a deal for the United States to receive a financial interest in Ukraine’s critical minerals industry. The first question, of course, is why we are asking an ally that was attacked to pay a kind of reparations. But apart from that, the president has characteristically exaggerated and misrepresented the facts.
And on another note – for some inexplicable reason – the Trump administration has decided to try to force New York City to halt its congestion pricing system, even though it has shown promising early results.
As he often does, the president has been wildly misrepresenting the facts around Ukrainian war aid. He claims that the United States has provided around $350 billion in aid; the actual figure is $120 billion. He has said that Europe has provided about $100 billion; the correct figure is $138 billion. (It is true that some portion of the European aid is in the form of loans.)
As a share of gross domestic product, the U.S. is roughly in the middle of the pack, well below small countries like Estonia and Denmark that are geographically close to Ukraine but roughly in line with larger countries like France and the U.K.
Against that backdrop, it is not clear why Trump believes that the U.S. is entitled to his requested $500 billion of compensation from Ukraine’s critical minerals industry, large resources of titanium, lithium, uranium and others. Regardless, the Ukrainians appear likely to agree to something as soon as Friday, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Washington.
It’s also important to note that the European Union and its members have promised an additional $121 billion in assistance while the U.S. has only pledged an additional $5 billion.
Moreover, an estimated 70% of what we provide to Ukraine is spent in the U.S. on things like equipment and ammunition or on U.S. forces. The Center for Strategic and International Studies has mapped where in the U.S. Ukraine related spending has gone. Interestingly, it found nine Congressional districts that received over $1 billion. Of the nine, six are represented by Democrats and three by Republicans. (Note that Florida’s first congressional district received between $500 million and $1 billion.)
On another subject, the Trump administration and New York State are locked in a court battle over New York’s congestion pricing, a charge of $9 to enter Manhattan south of 60th street. This is ironic because one of the cornerstones of Republican orthodoxy is that Washington should stay out of local affairs. Indeed, the Department of Housing and Urban Development just rescinded a federal zoning rule on the grounds that it was unwarranted interference in local affairs.
Most importantly, early results suggest that congestion pricing, which began Jan. 5, is working. In these early days, the number of vehicles entering the congestion pricing zone has dropped 8% – 12%. Injuries have fallen in half. Transit ridership is up by as much as 10%. The number of people entering the congestion pricing zone was up almost 5% and school bus delays dropped sharply. Importantly, almost $50 million was raised for mass transit in less than a month.
Another way to look at this is the time required to navigate one of New York’s many bridges and tunnels. All of these times have fallen, some by more than half.
