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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
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Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Friday that the new budget passed by the House would include an increase in defense spending and cuts to certain agencies while largely mirroring what President Donald Trump wanted.
He said the continuing resolution will fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year — Sept. 30 — and implement much of Trump’s agenda.
The president celebrated the news on his TruthSocial account.
“The House and Senate have put together, under the circumstances, a very good funding Bill (“CR”)! All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week. Great things are coming for America, and I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s ‘financial house’ in order. Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen. We have to remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right. VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he said.
The increase of $8 billion from the previous year for defense spending keeps the United States on top of every other nation in military expenditures, far ahead of China, The Washington Times reported.
“It also includes an additional $6 billion for veterans’ health care, over $9 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the freeze on $20 billion in IRS funds,” the report said.
“Plus, the deal drops nondefense spending by $13 billion. At least 22 instances in the measure zeroed out funding for programs in assorted agencies, including the Health and Human Services, Energy and Labor departments,” it said.
But the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, complained that the measure was a “power grab” by the Trump administration.
“By essentially closing the book on negotiations for full-year funding bills that help the middle class and protect our national security, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have handed their power to an unelected billionaire,” she said, per the Times.
Johnson made headlines earlier this month when he suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may need to resign following a high-profile public clash with Trump and Vice President JD Vance during a meeting in Washington last week.
Zelenskyy met with Trump, Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others in the Oval Office where he engaged in a heated public exchange with them in front of reporters during discussions about a rare earth mineral rights deal and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
“President Trump is trying to get these two parties to a point of peace,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What President Zelenskyy did in the White House was effectively signal to us that he’s not ready for that yet, and I think that’s a great disappointment.”
He went on to say that the Ukrainian leader “needs to come to his senses and return to the table with gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country” for the United States to continue collaborating with Kyiv on a peace deal. He added that the Trump administration “has been very clear” that if Ukraine and Zelenskyy are ready for a deal, it can be negotiated.
During a subsequent interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Johnson also disagreed with comments made on March 1 by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a long-time critic of Trump within the GOP, who stated that Trump is “walking away from our allies and embracing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
The Speaker countered by saying that Murkowski is “plainly wrong” and that “the person who walked away from the table yesterday was President Zelenskyy.”
Johnson’s comments about Zelenskyy stepping down mirrored those made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a leading Republican supporter of Ukraine throughout the three-year conflict, who stated on February 28 that Zelenskyy might need to step down, The Epoch Times noted.
“The question for me is, ‘Is he redeemable in the eyes of Americans?’ Most Americans witnessing what they saw today would not want Zelenskyy to be their business partner, including me, and I’ve been to Ukraine nine times since the war started,” Graham told Fox News last week.
The senator added that Zelenskyy needs to apologize to Trump. “If he can’t say that, then Ukraine—you need to either send us somebody new we can deal with or just accept the consequences,” Graham said.