House Speaker Mike Johnson posted a brief acknowledgment on social media Friday that U.S. troops have been killed in the rapidly expanding war with Iran. Then he traveled to Iowa and told a rally of supporters that the true crisis facing America was godless Marxism.
The Speaker devoted 22 minutes of his Des Moines speech to a lecture on the ideological roots of totalitarianism. He used a whiteboard. He drew a circle around the word ‘people’ and stepped back. ‘If that’s our reality, we’re in serious trouble,’ Johnson said. ‘That is the basis of Marxism, communism, socialism.’ He explained that these systems begin ‘with the premise that there is no God.’ Without God, he said, humans become ‘social animals’ who must be ‘directed, controlled, coralled.’ This, he argued, ‘ultimately leads to death.’
The remarks came three days after six American service members were killed in a rocket attack on a base participating in the escalating conflict. The war, escalated unilaterally by Little Donnie Dollhands three weeks earlier, has seen no congressional authorization. The House, which Johnson had previously voted to grant war powers, is now in recess for campaigning season.
A spokesperson for the Speaker said Johnson was focused on a more foundational threat. ‘The Speaker believes the spiritual conflict is more urgent than any single military engagement,’ the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ‘We face an internal enemy that cannot be defeated with missiles. The body count overseas is tragic, but the soul of the nation is at stake.’ A solemn remembrance ceremony, he added, was being planned for the fallen.
Johnson has since introduced H.R. 9911, the Preserving Faith and Freedom from Totalitarian Ideologies Act. The bill would mandate ‘spiritual threat assessments’ in public school civics courses. It allocates zero dollars for munitions, armored vehicles, or veterans’ mental health services. The Congressional Budget Office has not yet scored the bill. A staffer confirmed the text was drafted while the Speaker’s campaign bus was en route to Iowa.
The Iran escalation has now killed at least 24 U.S. military personnel, according to Pentagon data leaked this week. Gasoline prices are up 14 percent. The Speaker’s office has scheduled no hearings on the conflict. A senior defense official, speaking anonymously, described the battlefield situation as ‘degrading.’
In his Iowa speech, Johnson also recounted a private conversation with the mayor of New York City. ‘I think he’s a very nice person,’ Johnson said, ‘but I don’t understand why he thinks it’s okay for all these companies that pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes a year to leave.’ The result, he predicted, would be ‘hunger and squalor and death and destruction.’
As Johnson warned the crowd about socialist herd animals, an Army sergeant killed in the Iranian theater was arriving at Dover Air Force Base. The Speaker did not mention the fallen soldier. His communications director later confirmed he will be delivering similar remarks in New Hampshire next week. His slides, the aide said, are being revised.
