Speaker Johnson Blocks Biden’s Latest Attempt To Send Billions To Ukraine
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared on Wednesday that no further aid should be sent to Ukraine until President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Johnson underscored that decisions regarding additional support for Ukraine should be deferred to Trump after his inauguration in January, according to Breitbart News.
“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,” Johnson stated during a press conference with House Republican leaders.
He emphasized that Trump’s electoral win signals a shift in the ongoing 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 administration had proposed $8 billion in security aid for Ukraine, encompassing military equipment, training for its forces, and other support. Additionally, $16 billion was requested for the Department of Defense to provide Ukraine with further resources.
In September, Trump vowed to address the war in Ukraine even before his term officially begins.
“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,” Trump remarked.
“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,” he added.
“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,’” Trump concluded.
In late November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that the “hot war” with Russia could end if Ukraine were to secure protection under a “NATO umbrella” while pursuing the recovery of territories occupied by Russia through diplomatic avenues. However, these conditions remain unacceptable to Moscow.
Last month, after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, Biden left the president-elect a significant challenge: an escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Biden, or those managing his administration, authorized Ukraine to utilize long-range U.S. weapons against Russian targets. This decision prompted a stark reminder from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who warned that any escalation might lead Moscow to deploy nuclear weapons, albeit in a limited capacity.
This authorization followed earlier reports of North Korea sending approximately 10,000 troops to Russia, allegedly for deployment in Ukraine.
In May, administration officials hinted at the possibility of allowing Ukraine to use American-made weapons for strikes into Russia. However, no action was taken during the election cycle. After Trump’s victory, Biden revised his stance, creating a more complex situation for the incoming administration.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the missiles “could initially target positions in the Kursk region, where Russia has stationed over 50,000 troops, including around 10,000 North Korean soldiers, in an effort to retake the territory.”