Friends of Ukraine aren’t welcome in the Republican party

If you think the Tory Tribes in Westminster are unruly, try managing the Republicans in Washington, DC.

Congressman Mike Johnson has only been Speaker of the House of Representatives since late October, after the last guy was kicked out, and now he’s facing the axe over his support for funding Ukraine.

This week Johnson finally decided to press on with the multi-layered, much-disputed and delayed $95 billion aid package designed to support Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine – even though he knows the move may well cost him his job. “I regard myself as a war-time speaker,” he says. “I didn’t think this would be an easy path.”

It’s worse than that. Johnson is in an impossible position. He’s under intense pressure from America’s international allies, and the still powerful Atlanticist factions within his own party, who know that, without sustained US support, Ukraine cannot win. Uncle Sam is the only power with enough might to prop up the fight against Russia.

But he’s up against the Freedom Caucus, on the Right of his party, whose members are adamant that the federal government must first address the massive illegal immigration crisis on its southern border before sending yet more billions to defend Ukraine’s.

He’s also up against Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who evidently despises the Ukraine hawks on Capitol Hill.

In recent days, she has proposed a somewhat facetious amendment which would compel representatives who vote for the aid package to enlist in the Ukrainian military. “I mean if you want to fund the war,” she says, “why don’t you go fight in it?”

MTG, as she is known, is clearly having a good time at Johnson’s expense. She’s also proposed diverting some of the aid towards “the development of space laser technology on the southwest border” of the US – a mischievous nod to her own notorious 2018 Facebook post in which she suggested that a ‘Jewish space laser’ may have caused wildfires in California.

More seriously, she and six other America Firsters in Congress have filed a “motion to vacate” Johnson as speaker. They accuse him of “working with Democrats” – a cardinal sin – in order to get the legislation passed.

Johnson has tried to appease the Right of his party by adding a late fifth-bill to the aid package that would include funds for US border security. Yet it looks increasingly likely that, unless he changes course on Ukraine, Johnson will suffer the same fate as Speaker Kevin McCarthy before him.

“If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate,” says Johnson. “I would never be able to do my job.”

It’s a strange turn of events, though, for a man who, not so long ago, was accused of being a Kremlin asset because he once allegedly received money from Russian oligarchs. That was in February, when he was understood to be standing in the way of Ukraine funding.

Kevin McCarthy was easily condemned as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) because he presented himself as a centrist operator in Washington, DC. Johnson, by contrast, has a staunchly conservative record. He’s a very devout Baptist evangelical, an old-school ‘religious Right’ figure who has consistently opposed abortion, gay marriage, divorce, and the climate change lobby. He once even suggested that teaching evolution in schools caused mass shootings.

But the Christian Right is not the same as Make America Great Again (MAGA) Right, and it appears that Johnson, in supporting Ukraine, has fallen foul of conservatives who consider the war effort against Putin to be futile at best and a massive strategic mistake at worst.

Trump regards China, not Russia, as the greatest threat to America’s interests, and if the incoming Republican nominee is elected on November 5, his strategy will be to break Beijing’s ties to Moscow – ties that have grown stronger as China has tacitly supported Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Johnson’s best chance at survival would be to persuade Trump, the de facto leader of the party, if not to back the aid package then to persuade MTG and co to back down. He duly visited the MAGA king in Mar-a-Lago at the end of last week. Trump in turn obliged him with a statement of support. “I stand with the speaker,” he said. “He’s doing a very good job.”

Then came the devilish ambiguity: “We’re getting along very well with the speaker,” said Trump. “And I get along very well with Marjorie.” Johnson should have known the rule of internal Republican politics in the age of Trump: when push comes to shove, don’t expect the Donald to have your back.