House Speaker Mike Johnson said the United States should not be “nation-building” or intervening around the world, casting a stark contrast to President Donald Trump‘s recent framing of the international war he had hoped would be an opportunity for “building a new country” in Iran.
The Republican House leader made the comments during an annual policy conference held in Florida on Tuesday, March 10. When asked by NBC News reporter Scott Wong whether he supported nation-building in Iran, Johnson responded: “I don’t.”
“I don’t think it’s our role,” Johnson said, before adding that he thinks America has a “very important role to play in the world” stretching back generations.
“We are the good guys,” Johnson said. “We are the defenders of freedom and liberty, and freedom-loving people all around the world benefit from a strong America.”
“Does that mean that we should be intervening everywhere around the world and nation-building and doing all these other endeavors?” Johnson added. “No, because we don’t have the resources or the appetite to do that. That’s not our responsibility.”
Over the last several months, Trump has launched military actions in Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria, and threatened military intervention in Greenland and Cuba. The U.S.-Israel joint airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28 killed the country’s former leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launching a war that has expanded into a regional crisis in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.
In a press conference on Monday, March 9, Trump said the war with Iran could be called a “tremendous success” and vowed the United States was “going to go further” in the ongoing conflict.
“It’s the beginning of building a new country,” Trump said.
Despite the two top Republicans’ divergence on the topic of nation-building, Johnson echoed Trump’s calls for the Iranian people to “take over” the government.
The Louisiana Republican said the United States’ responsibility is to “project peace through strength,” and he touted the nation’s military power. When it comes to Iran, he said it is not the United States’ role to rebuild the country. He placed that undertaking in the hands of the Iranian people.
“They need to rise up, as the president has tried to encourage,” Johnson said, referring to the people of Iran. “And they need to take that opportunity, and they need to secure that for themselves.”
Johnson’s comments came after Congress officially opted not to immediately halt U.S. involvement in the Iran war in back-to-back votes in the Senate and House of Representatives last week. But Congress will likely soon have another chance to weigh in on the rapidly expanding war: Congressional leaders, including the top Republican appropriators in the Senate and House of Representatives, have publicly said a request for billions in emergency cash to fund the war is almost certainly on its way.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.