“They Shouldn’t Receive Another Penny from America!”: Contestations of U.S. Support for Ukraine from the Ideological Margins?

Abstract The paper, leaning on discourse-bound identity theory and a contestation concept, examines contestations of support for Ukraine and their prevalence in both parties in U.S. Congress, investigating links to U.S. foreign policy traditions. The discourse analysis shows increasing contestation within the Grand Old Party by the “America First” discursive alliance, which illustrates polarization and intra-party fragmentation, indicating future U.S. foreign policy volatility in international crises.