Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Wednesday that there should not be more aid for Ukraine ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Johnson said that the decision to provide more aid for Ukraine should fall on Trump when he becomes the president again in January.
“As we predicted and as I said to all of you weeks before the election, if Donald Trump is elected it will change the dynamic of the Russian war on Ukraine, and we’re seeing that happen,” the Louisiana leader of the House said during a House Republican leadership press conference. He added that Trump’s electoral victory will change the dynamic of the protracted conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“So it is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision now, we have a newly elected president and we’re going to wait and take the new commander in chief’s direction on all that, so I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now,” Johnson continued.
The Biden White House called for $8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, which includes providing military equipment to Ukraine, funding training of its armed forces, and more. Another $16 billion was requested for the Department of Defense (DOD) to send more supplies to Ukraine.
Trump said in September he would seek to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict as president-elect, even before he takes office:
I want to get Russia to settle up with Ukraine and stop this — millions of people being killed, far greater than the number you read about. But I want to get that done before I even take office, I want to get that done as president-elect, because it has to be solved — too many people dying, too many cities are just in rubble right now, you look at the cultures just being destroyed. We’ve got to get that done, and I’ll get it done. There wouldn’t have been an October 7th, there wouldn’t have been Russia attacking Ukraine, there wouldn’t be inflation, all this inflation which has hurt people so badly. You wouldn’t have had that horrible type of withdrawal — we were getting out of Afghanistan, but with dignity and strength — that was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. And frankly Russia would have never gone into Ukraine if it weren’t for that. They looked at that and they said, “This country is no longer run by Trump. This country is run by stupid people.”
In late November, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said that the “hot war” with Russia could end if Ukraine is guaranteed protection under a “NATO umbrella” while the country seeks to retake territories controlled by Russia “diplomatically.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
