National Interest: Why did the Speaker of the US House of Representatives change his position on Ukraine?

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, puts his position in jeopardy and changes his position on Ukrainian aid, and why did he do that?

Does House Speaker Mike Johnson follow MAGA, Trump’s slogan (Make America Great Again), or is he a Reagan-school Republican?

According to an article in the National Interest newspaper.

Johnson, speaking to CNN, stood strongly for the Reagan school; “I am a child of the 1980s,” he said, “and I believe in Reagan’s doctrine of “peace through strength”.

Reagan sought to fund insurgencies around the world, from Africa to Central America, to fight the imperial aspirations of the Soviet Union.

However, over the past few months, Johnson has been reluctant to accept aid to Ukraine.

The costs were high as Russia continued its offensive against Kiev, but Johnson’s waiting game appears to have allowed him to outmaneuver the hardline faction.

Even Donald Trump, who says he can resolve the Ukraine crisis within 24 hours, made conciliatory noises about providing aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan when Johnson visited him at Mar-a-Lago.

Johnson’s proposed set of three bills to aid Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine sparked a storm of protests among hardline Republicans.

Matt Gaetz declared, “It’s disappointing, and I won’t support it”.

As for Marjorie Taylor Greene, she said, “I don’t know how long people will put up with this, and proposed Johnson’s removal, as Thomas Massie announced in”.

No other Republican Party spokesman has been suggested; It will likely take weeks for House Republicans to settle on a new nominee.

It can be said that Johnson is pursuing his personal policy of peace through strength.

He needs to defuse the far right by winning passage of these bills, or his position as speaker is over before it even begins.

If he refrains from providing aid to Ukraine, he will be at the mercy of the Freedom Caucus for the rest of his term – as a puppet speaker.

Johnson may be beginning to realize the high costs of Russian advances at the strategic level.

It would be easy for Johnson to give up, too.

Johnson pledged to put aid to Ukraine on the House floor, risking his position as speaker, which means together in Ukrainian.