By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson said on Thursday there is “no appetite” for another funding bill for Ukraine, a day after President Donald Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a “dictator” and warned he must move quickly to secure peace with Russia or risk losing his country.
“There’s no appetite for that,” Johnson told Newsmax during the Conservative Political Action Conference when asked – to a chorus of boos from the right-leaning audience – if he foresaw another funding bill for Ukraine, if it takes several more months before the war ends.
“We have to bring (the war) to an end. And I can tell you that our European allies understand the necessity as well. It’s (dragged) on too long,” Johnson said.
The Republican House leader’s comments came amid deepening uncertainty about the future of U.S. support for Kyiv, amid a war of words between Trump and Zelenskiy.
Trump has upended U.S. policy on the war in Ukraine, ending a campaign to isolate Russia with a phone call with Putin, and setting up talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia that did not include Zelenskiy’s government.
On Tuesday, Trump claimed Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion. Zelenskiy claimed Trump was parroting Russian disinformation.
Johnson’s comments reflected a shifting mood in the U.S. Congress, which had approved $175 billion in assistance for Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, when Democrats had a majority in the Senate and held the White House.
Trump’s Republicans now control the House, Senate and White House.
Last April, Johnson angered many of his fellow Republicans in the House by allowing a vote on legislation that included $61 billion for Ukraine. The measure passed with more support from Democrats than Republicans.
Noting that both Russia and Ukraine have sustained heavy losses, Johnson said on Thursday: “We have to bring an end to the conflict. President Trump is exactly right. It’s time for it to end, and he (Trump) is the brute force, I think, that can make that happen.”
Johnson said Trump needed room to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine, and said Zelenskiy’s “complaining” that Ukraine was not invited to the meeting in Saudi Arabia was “misplaced.”
“I mean, what Trump’s trying to do is… put the conditions in place for that real negotiation, negotiation to happen and we’ve got to allow him to do what he does,” Johnson said.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by David Morgan and Jasper Ward; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and Alistair Bell)
