'Neutralized': Insiders say speaker used Trump's own tactics to sideline him on aid vote

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) changed his tune on Ukraine funding after receiving intelligence briefings and speaking to European allies who explained the stakes — and he managed to bring the bill to a vote over Donald Trump's objections, according to a report.

The Louisiana Republican had opposed a $300 million aid package before ascending to speaker in October, but told Senate Republicans almost immediately afterward that he would support the funding as long as Israel aid got a separate vote, and he risked his leadership career by delivering $61 billion in aid to help fight off Russian invaders, reported Politico.

“It was the intelligence, it was the Europe generals who are in charge of the freedom of the world and, of course, it was the developments as well, everything has escalated,” Johnson told the website.

The funding measure passed with the support of Democrats and the GOP's Reaganites, who are losing ground each election cycle. Of the 112 House Republicans who voted against Ukraine funding, 71 have been elected since the first midterm election of the Trump era, in 2018.

“The speaker was courageous, he was courageous,” said former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I can’t imagine that he won’t continue to be speaker.”

But the speaker does face a motion to vacate filed by right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and backed by some other Republicans, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

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Johnson managed to bring the vote to the floor by keeping Trump on the sidelines with a strategy learned from his own presidency.

"Trump was neutralized — to use the term one House Republican wielded from the comfort of background — with the same tactic used to great effect when he was in the Oval Office: overwhelming force," reported Politico's Jonathan Martin. "GOP lawmakers, former cabinet officials, retired military and foreign leaders made an aggressive case to Trump not to come out against Ukraine aid. Oh, and they deployed flattery and played to their target’s self-interest."

Johnson personally visited Mar-a-Lago earlier this month and often spoke to Trump by phone, and he and other Republicans assured the ex-president that allowing Kyiv to fall to Russian occupation would present a crisis on Day One should he return to the White House, according to one GOP source familiar with those conversations.

"The speaker also played to Trump’s vanity by repeatedly crediting Trump for the tweak in the House bill to make the $9.5 billion in Ukrainian economic aid a forgivable loan rather than a grant," Martin reported.

"Trump, in other words, was managed," Martin added. "And it may be a preview of what’s to come, should he win again and, once again, appoint hawkish national security officials who know how to overcome his isolationist instincts."