WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken dressed his four-year-old son as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a Halloween event with President Biden on the White House lawn Monday night.
Biden gave the young “Zelensky,” who wore a dark-green sweatshirt, a box of M&Ms bearing the presidential seal — after asking Congress earlier this month to give another $61.4 billion for the real deal, on top of $113 billion already appropriated to help Kyiv resist Russia’s 20-month-old invasion.
Blinken was accompanied by his wife, Biden’s White House Cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, and their three-year-old daughter, who was dressed in the Ukrainian flag’s blue-and-yellow scheme.
The top US diplomat’s grandfather, Moritz Blinken, was born in Ukraine’s capital, then part of the Russian empire, in 1900 and immigrated to the US with his family as a 4-year-old.
Blinken’s ancestors were, like Zelensky, Ukrainian Jews.
The secretary of state orchestrated the unusual show of support as Congress debates the latest spending request for Ukraine, which faces headwinds from fiscal conservatives who note the US government had its highest-ever non-pandemic budget deficit — $1.7 trillion — in the fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has outlined plans to pass $14.3 billion in military aid for Israel to respond to the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas separately from the larger request for Ukraine.
The Senate is more likely to pass the requests as one package, creating uncertainty about the path forward.
The 80-year-old Biden passed out candy Monday for nearly 90 minutes.
He dressed as himself and wore a baseball cap with the presidential seal.
Decorations hanging off the White House balcony included a large image of the first dog Commander, who has badly injured Secret Service members in biting incidents.
Despite the steady rain and cool 58-degree temperatures, no staffers brought out an umbrella for the nation’s oldest-ever commander-in-chief, who turns 81 next month.
