House Speaker Mike Jonhson (R-LA) says he will block Joe Biden's last-minute request to send $24 billion to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. Johnson's move complicates Biden's efforts to inflame the conflict and sabotage President-elect Trump's plan for a peaceful settlement.
While Johnson has supported Ukraine, he said Biden's request is inappropriate with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office and shift foreign policy in a new direction.
Trump has pledged to quickly end the almost three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, leaving Biden desperate to arm Ukraine with as much lethal weaponry as possible before he steps down.
The lame duck president has backtracked on supplying deadly anti-personnel mines, which can harm civilians, and he has authorized long-range strikes into Russian territory, raising the risk of escalation.
The Biden White House has also pushed Ukraine to lower the age of the draft from 25 to 18, but the demand has faced pushback from Ukraine.
Biden is making a last push for an additional $24 billion in aid, including $8 billion in security assistance to arm Ukraine and $16 billion to replenish U.S. stockpiles. But Biden will not receive any more help from Republicans, according to Johnson.
The House Speaker - who won praise across the aisle for pushing Ukraine aid through earlier this year - said no additional funding should be authorized while Biden is president.
"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 said.
"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."
By the way, Biden is not even finished sending the $61 billion in aid that Congress authorized in April, with Johnson's backing. Indeed, Biden still has about $7 billion left to send before he steps down, and officials are skeptical it will all be allocated, CNN reported.
Ukraine's demands are placing a strain on diminished U.S. stockpiles, but the Biden administration has said it intends to allocate all of the remaining funding before Trump's inauguration.
Despite Biden's furious push to prolong the war in Europe, Russia has been gaining momentum and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has already begun negotiating with President-elect Trump on ending the conflict.
Zelensky has suggested Ukraine is open to conceding territory in exchange for security guarantees from NATO. Zelensky has long insisted on reclaiming all of the land seized by Russia, but Trump's return clearly has Zelensky rethinking his position.
By calling for another $24 billion to prolong a hopeless war, Biden is clearly trying to tie Trump's hands and undermine his foreign policy agenda. Johnson is right to block Biden's maneuver.
