How strength training in Washington delivered more brawn for Ukraine

WASHINGTON — The story is so familiar that by now it’s a Capitol Hill cliche: Lawmakers from different parties meet in the gym and realize amid the clack of iron weights that they have more in common than not.

But the latest version comes with a geopolitical twist. The senator and congressman who forged a rapport in the House gym quietly collaborated in a way that is making it tougher for Russia to swallow up Ukraine.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer is a New Jersey Democrat and Harvard Law grad who once wrote speeches for Bill Clinton.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin is an Oklahoma Republican who excelled in the mixed martial arts ring and who called Donald Trump “the strongest president in my lifetime.”

Nothing would suggest they’d be on speaking terms in the face of institutional pressures that conspire to pull lawmakers apart. But in the years they’ve been sweating through round after round of burpees, they started talking. Now they kid each other and text back and forth about politics and policy. They’ve become friends.

They’re hardly the first to see partisan suspicions melt away at the bench press. Nor do Americans necessarily need to care if two lawmakers get along or not. Except that in a bit of serendipity, one can draw a straight line between the congressional gym and Ukraine’s strength on the battlefield.

For months, Congress struggled to pass a major foreign aid package giving Ukraine billions of dollars needed to defeat Russia’s military. A breakthrough came in April when House Speaker Mike Johnson defied far-right members of his GOP caucus in passing the bill.

Much has been said about Johnson’s maneuvering. Less well-known is the discreet role that Gottheimer and Mullin played in pushing the deal through.

Back in February, Gottheimer was driving with his 12-year-old son to go snow tubing in New Jersey when his cell phone rang. Mullin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R., S.C., were calling. He pulled over at a Dunkin’ Donuts, got his son a hot chocolate and took the call.

At that point, U.S. aid to the Ukrainian war effort looked dead. Trump retains a tight grip on congressional Republicans and his opposition had just tanked a measure that would have tied Ukraine aid to border security.

Lawmakers feared that Trump would inject himself into the talks once again if they tried to revive the package.

“You’re looking at this and going, one tweet can derail the whole thing,” Gottheimer said. “My biggest concern was not having the former president derail this.”

But Mullin saw an opening. The ex-president signaled in a Truth Social post on Feb. 10 that he might accept a deal if it was structured as a loan rather than an outright gift.

“We think there’s a deal to be had here,” Gottheimer recalled the two senators telling him on the call.

So began a new round of intensive negotiations in which Mullin and Gottheimer, working together, played defined roles in pushing the measure forward.

Gottheimer had no relationship with Trump, but Mullin did. Mullin had no relationship with the White House, but Gottheimer did.

“Unfortunately, we have zero conversations with the White House,” Mullin said in an interview. “They’ve never reached out. I don’t know who my White House liaison is.”

Mullin flew down to Mar-a-Lago to speak to Trump and stayed in touch with him, making sure the ex-president wasn’t souring on the package. For his part, Gottheimer spoke often to senior White House aides and the House Democratic leadership.

Through it all, Gottheimer and Mullin talked frequently, relaying information back and forth about what they were hearing and the status of the talks, all with a view toward ensuring the deal didn’t collapse.

“Josh and I spoke almost every day, even on Sunday when I didn’t want to talk to him,” Mullin said.

“He [Mullin] was talking to the former president and getting feedback, and I was having conversations with the White House and with [Democratic] leader Hakeem Jeffries and others on our side,” Gottheimer said.

The White House shared the concern that Trump might upend the deal at any moment, a person familiar with the matter said, making Mullin’s role as the Trump whisperer all the more important.

In the end, the final package carried language that appeased Trump. The $10 billion in aid to Ukraine is considered a loan, though the president is free to forgive it beginning in 2026.

With that, Trump never opposed the deal, the GOP caucus fell in line, and Biden signed the measure into law. Weapons soon began flowing into Ukraine.

“When we presented this to President Trump, he was all on board,” Mullin said. “And that was key. That allowed [House Speaker Mike] Johnson to have some cover.”

Neither Gottheimer nor Mullin is a household name in American politics. Many voters may have…