Funding Ukraine against Russia doesn’t sit well with the emergent MAGA movement in the Republican Party, but the initiative has awakened a drowsy strain of traditional Cold Warrior Republicanism in the GOP, where the anti-Russia sentiment is deep-seated.
For every Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) who trust that Russia’s territorial ambitions do not move past Ukraine into Western Europe, there are more Republican lawmakers who believe Vladimir Putin‘s ultimate aims may well include the annexation of Poland and beyond.
One of those Cold Warrior Republicans — and perhaps an unlikely one — is House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Johnson introduced his Ukraine aid package this week saying he’d rather send “bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” putting what he sees as the responsibility of America to defend against autocrats like Putin into stark binary terms — via boys or bullets.
“I think Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Western Europe if he was allowed,” Johnson said, having seen critical U.S. intelligence on Russia. “I think he might go to the Balkans next…he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.”
To portray the threat, Johnson reached back to one of the most memorable phrases of President George W. Bush, a non-MAGA Republican of the old school strain. Linking China, Russia and Iran — all in conflict with the recipients (Taiwan, Ukraine, and Israel) of Johnson’s proposed aid packages — Speaker Johnson says: “I believe Xi [Jinping], Vladimir Putin and Iran are an axis of evil. I believe they’re in coordination on it.”
I was struck by this quote from @SpeakerJohnson yesterday. Until yesterday, he had yet to make a case for Ukraine aid. And then he unfurled this. pic.twitter.com/PMnfMn2NC3
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) April 18, 2024
Bush’s axis of evil, a phrase first heard globally in his State of the Union address in January 2002 after the 9/11 attacks on America, referred to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.