Exclusive: Speaker Johnson says Congress has 'no appetite' for future Ukraine funding

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Blaze News in an exclusive interview Monday that Ukraine funding is off the table in the future as President Donald Trump continues peace talks this week.

Johnson told Blaze News that there is "no appetite" for additional Ukraine funding in the future now that Trump is at the head of the negotiations, noting that the president is the "change agent" needed to bring the conflict to an end.

'They need to resolve this. That’s one of the pressure points I think it's important for them to recognize, and I think that’s what President Trump is communicating.'

"We're in a totally different posture now," Johnson told Blaze News. "Everybody wants to bring it into this war, this conflict. We desperately need peace to be restored there, and that’s good, not just for Europe and the West but for us in the United States as well."

"The investment that was made thus far was to allow Ukraine to be in a posture, ultimately, where they are right now, to be in a position to be able to deliver peace," Johnson added. "But I think what President Trump is doing is he’s the change agent that’s necessary for this, and we knew that. We campaigned on it all last year."

To Johnson's point, Trump has been nothing short of a "change agent." Last week, the president delivered scathing remarks about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a "dictator" and criticizing the overseas abuse of American tax dollars.

But now with Trump back at the White House, Congress is no longer keen on bankrolling Zelenskyy's war effort.

'President Trump is that transformative figure.'

"There’s no appetite for it in Congress," Johnson told Blaze News. "We had made that clear with them. They need to resolve this. That’s one of the pressure points I think it's important for them to recognize, and I think that’s what President Trump is communicating."

"You've got to have a change in leadership, because to restore peace through strength, you have to have a strong commander in chief of the U.S. that our adversaries respect and fear, in some respects, and someone that our allies trust and believe in," Johnson told Blaze News. "President Trump is that transformative figure."

Trump has been spearheading peace talks with Russia, much to Zelenskyy's frustration. When Trump first held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and excluded Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president lashed out at the administration, insisting that any future peace deal must be reached with him in the room.

"I think of it very much like an arbitration," Johnson told Blaze News. "I used to be a lawyer, and we would do those. When you have an arbitration where you're trying to get two parties to resolve something, the first meeting is never with them in the same room. It's by design and necessity that you meet with them individually and separately first. You get the issue set agreed upon, and then you bring the parties together to finalize it."

"President Trump is in that process, and I think everyone needs to allow it time to happen," Johnson added.

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