Mike Johnson Promised To Fix The Border Before Funneling Money Overseas. He’s Doing The Opposite
Before Republican Rep. Mike Johnson became speaker of the House, he wasn’t an open proponent of bankrolling the Russia-Ukraine war. Even the Lousiana native’s first few months with the gavel were marked by his repeated pledge that the lower chamber would not pass legislation promising money to secure other nation’s borders while ours was still under attack.
Now that his leadership is threatened thanks to his continual collusion with Democrats and establishment Republicans, however, the self-proclaimed “wartime speaker” is abandoning his record of Ukraine skepticism in favor of joining the push for an endless stream of money to a corrupt overseas regime.
In May 2023, Johnson, then an individual member, declined to support another blank check to Kyiv because the U.S. “should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go.” Less than one month before becoming speaker, Johnson also voted no on a bill that promised $300 million more to Ukraine.
Even Johnson’s post-speaker election remarks, which featured shoutouts to Israel and other foreign policy issues, made no mention of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Shortly after he met with President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss passing Israel and Ukraine spending packages, Johnson changed his tune.
Just one week after he began presiding over the House of Representatives, Johnson announced a GOP agenda that hinted at fulfilling “obligations … around the world” but promised to “take care of our own House first.”
“We will take care of a border in Ukraine. We need to take care of America’s border as well,” Johnson declared.
During a quick colleague fundraising trip to Florida in November, Johnson again confirmed the forever war overseas “is another priority” but claimed further funding hinged on “changing our own border policy.”
For months, Johnson teased and taunted voters sick of seeing their taxpayer dollars thrown at a proxy war in Eastern Europe with promises to address domestic problems such as the ongoing border invasion, and punish the people responsible for incentivizing it.
In December, Johnson said the American border should be Republicans’ “hill to die on.”
“The battle is for the border,” Johnson stated. “We do that first as a top priority, and we’ll take care of these other obligations.”
Johnson even made a big show of visiting the U.S.-Mexico border and demanding the border be “closed and secured” before the House would consider more foreign spending.
“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security. It begins right here on our southern border,” Johnson said in Eagle Pass.
He said he repeated the sentiment during a meeting with Biden the next week.
“I told the president what I have been saying for many months, and that is that we must have change at the border — substantive policy change,” Johnson said.
Johnson continued what appeared to be a commitment to true border security at the beginning of 2024 when he deemed the Senate’s bad border bill “dead on arrival.” He also proceeded with impeachment articles for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and criticized the Senate for passing a bill that included provisions for Ukraine but not the U.S. border.
Yet when the time came in March to put the money where his mouth was, Johnson and more than 130 House Republicans did not hesitate to pass a Democrat-led $460 billion spending bill that did nothing about the mass influx of border crossers illegally entering the country.
Around that same time, Johnson’s Ukraine talk also started to shift. He began trying to finagle new ways, such as loans and redistributing frozen Russian assets, to get Volodymyr Zelensky quick cash.
“Even President Trump has talked about the loan concept where we set up — we’re not just giving foreign aid,” Johnson told Fox News. “We’re setting it up in a relationship where they can provide it back to us when the time is right.”
Lured by the promise that Democrats will help him keep his currently threatened position if he takes up their causes, Johnson is dead set on bankrolling Ukraine against his conference and American voters’ wishes.
Johnson has spent the last couple of weeks in particular entertaining spending bills, which will likely be lumped together in reconciliation, that send money to Kyiv, Israel, and Taiwan. His decision to yield to and even join the uniparty’s Ukraine campaign proves he is actively sabotaging the little leverage House Republicans have.
He’s also sabotaging his position as speaker. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie announced Tuesday night that he would cosponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate.
Johnson, however, is unfazed. Ukraine’s borders, not our own, are his new “hill to die on.”
“I’m not resigning and it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs,” Johnson said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Johnson’s so-called vision to “save the country,” however, doesn’t begin with addressing Americans’ mounting concerns about inflation, the border, lawfare, or any other issue plaguing our “beleaguered republic.” According to the speaker, saving America begins with caving to corporate media demands and sending Ukraine billions more dollars.
The battle this “wartime speaker” is ready to fight isn’t at home for his voters but nearly 5,000 miles and an ocean away.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
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