Joe Biden is suddenly on a lucky streak

On Tuesday evening the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, ending a drawn-out, convoluted back-and-forth caused entirely by the Republican Party.

The bill passage is a victory for America’s image on the national stage, but it’s also an unequivocal win for the man who signed the bill on Wednesday: President Joe Biden. By getting the legislation through, the president is able to say that Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, passed a standalone Ukraine aid bill when many people thought the US would abandon its commitments.

Importantly, Biden managed to get aid to Ukraine with basically no strings attached. The House added just two provisions to get Republicans on board: a loan aspect to Ukraine and legislation to trigger either a sale or a ban on TikTok. Biden has already said he would sign the legislation, so he essentially got aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan for free.

In the end, then, the president did not have to concede anything on immigration or pass any draconian laws that would either require him to enact policies his base would dislike or give powers to a hypothetical future President Donald Trump.

For the longest time, polling has shown that immigration is Biden’s weakest spot by far. Republicans have relentlessly pummeled him by decrying images of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. But it was them who killed an immigration bill, almost exclusively at Trump’s behest, a few weeks ago. That allowed Biden to say that he was serious about negotiating on immigration, whereas Republicans clearly wanted to keep the problem around as a talking point.

“I think it actually was important to prove to Republicans that they didn't want to actually marry Ukraine and