The night before Speaker Mike Johnson faced off against the hard right wing of his party to push through a bill allocating over $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, he found himself in a moment of intense personal turmoil.
“He was in shambles,” his wife Kelly Johnson recalled in an interview last fall, reflecting on that pivotal night in spring. “We thought we were done. I said, ‘Well, it was great. It was a nice, but short ride.’ We thought we were going home.”
Mr. Johnson spent the night praying in the living room of his Washington, D.C., apartment. By morning, he resolved to do what he believed was right, regardless of the political cost. He decided to proceed with the legislation to continue funding Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, telling his colleagues he wanted to be on the right side of history.
Less than a year later, Mr. Johnson has made a 180-degree turn on Ukraine. His shift reflects a broader Republican alignment with former President Donald Trump, who has cozyed up to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, dismissed Ukraine’s conflict as illegitimate, and referred to President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator”—a label he has not used for Putin.
This new alignment was on full display during a heated Oval Office meeting last Friday, where Trump berated Zelensky and ultimately expelled him from the White House in a dramatic rupture of relations. Within hours, Mr. Johnson publicly backed Trump, writing on social media, “Thank you, President Trump—the days of America being taken advantage of and disrespected are over. What we witnessed today was the U.S. president putting America first.”
For the House Speaker, this marked a stark reversal from less than a year ago, when he championed Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression and was willing to risk his job to secure financial support—a move Trump now condemns as a “terrible deal” for the U.S.
At the time, Mr. Johnson engaged in highly secretive talks with top Biden administration officials to ensure the aid package passed, going to unprecedented lengths to keep the negotiations under wraps. Today, he stands with Trump, accusing those same officials of exacerbating the conflict and meddling in America’s response.
Last year, Mr. Johnson faced fierce opposition from within his own party, privately making the case for supporting Kiev—a position Trump now rejects as he reshapes U.S. policy toward Russia and Ukraine.
This account of those secret negotiations and internal debates is based on interviews conducted last fall with individuals involved, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for an upcoming book titled “Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, and a Florida Nepo Baby Took Over Washington.”
“We’ll be starting at World War II.”
Mr. Johnson insists his stance on Ukraine hasn’t changed, claiming he supported aid to position Trump to broker a peace deal. But behind the scenes, he made a far more extensive case for countering Putin’s aggression and maintaining European stability.
In the weeks leading up to the vote last year, he engaged in tense discussions with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who threatened to oust him from his speakership if he allowed the Ukraine aid bill to proceed.
In one such meeting, Greene warned Mr. Johnson that the classified intelligence he relied on to justify the aid was the same kind of flawed information that led the U.S. to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. She urged him to be skeptical of intelligence community briefings, saying, “They have agendas.”
Mr. Johnson’s patience was tested by her level of distrust. “What about the Trump guys who say if we don’t act, we’ll be starting at World War II?” he asked, referencing figures like John Ratcliffe, Robert O’Brien, Mike Pompeo, and Devin Nunes.
“They’re part of the deep state,” Greene shot back. “Once you enter the intel space, you’ve sold your soul.”
Mr. Johnson pressed her: Was there anyone in the Pentagon whose word she trusted? “No,” Greene replied, insisting everyone deserved the “deep state” label.
Mr. Johnson bit his tongue, recalling the biblical admonition to forgive even those who persecute you. He asked Greene if she had ever served in the military or visited Europe. She admitted she had not. “So you trust your gut over all the intelligence I’ve shown you?” he asked incredulously.
“Americans know,” she fired back. “And you should too, if you weren’t such a coward.”
