Speaker Johnson to deliver major foreign policy speech ahead of NATO summit

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will lay out his foreign policy agenda in a speech at a leading conservative think tank in Washington D.C., on July 8, one day before the start of the NATO summit hosted by President Biden.

Johnson will deliver remarks at Hudson Institute, a prominent Washington think tank that has become a home for former Trump administration senior officials who tend to buck the former president’s antagonism toward allies and support foreign military aid, in particular for Ukraine.

Johnson’s speech will lay out his “agenda to bolster the credibility of U.S. deterrence, strengthen alliances, improve America’s hard power, and maintain freedom, security, and prosperity for the American people,” according to a release from Hudson Institute.

The Louisiana Republican, a relative unknown before becoming Speaker last year, is increasingly finding his footing as a leader on foreign policy.

Johnson has also positioned himself as an ally of former President Trump, whose support he needs to win a new election as GOP leader and Speaker, should Republicans hold the House majority this fall.

Johnson in April brought President Biden’s $100 billion national security supplemental, which included aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo Pacific, to the House floor for a vote despite opposition from parts of his caucus and a threat to depose him from firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Johnson implicitly won Trump’s backing before the vote and easily turned aside Greene’s challenge in the weeks after the Ukraine package was passed.

While the majority of House Republicans voted against the Ukraine aid package, Johnson spoke in favor of the military aid for Kyiv as “critically important,” citing the classified intelligence briefings he received as Speaker as influencing his decision.

“I think that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Baltics next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies,” Johnson said in April, ahead of the vote. 

The 75th anniversary NATO summit in Washington is a three-day conference expected to deliver a series of commitments for Ukraine, including military and economic aid.

Johnson’s choice of Hudson Institute as a venue for his remarks is significant. Hudson Institute promotes itself as a home for conservative voices that support U.S. engagement in the world and commitment to allies, a contrast to Trump’s antagonism toward NATO and his more transactional foreign policy.

Hudson foreign policy fellows have garnered a reputation as a counter to another conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which has laid out a transition agenda for a second Trump term should he win the November election. 

Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of State, is a distinguished fellow with Hudson Institute. He had urged Johnson to bring the Ukraine bill to the floor and welcomed its passage.

Nikki Haley, former Republican presidential candidate and who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, joined Hudson Institute in April. 

And former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), a Trump critic and who recently served in the high-profile position of chair of the House select committee focused on threats from China, joined Hudson in May after leaving Congress.