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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a historic address to Britain’s Parliament on Tuesday, emphasizing that his mission was to “calm the waters” amid rising tensions between the U.S. and the UK.
Johnson highlighted the enduring U.S.-UK alliance, shared history, and security interests, speaking against a backdrop of controversy over President Trump’s Greenland ambitions and recent criticism of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
#MikeJohnson #UKParliament #HouseSpeaker #USUKRelations
Mike Johnson UK Parliament,House Speaker Mike Johnson speech,Calm the Waters US UK,US UK relations,Trump Greenland controversy,Keir Starmer Chagos deal,transatlantic tensions,historic speech US speaker,Speaker Johnson landmark address,political news UK,US politics live,Diplomacy news,US UK alliance news,Greenland dispute news,Chagos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLEtz3H0jSfEneSdf1YKnw/join
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a historic address to Britain’s Parliament on Tuesday, emphasizing that his mission was to “calm the waters” amid rising tensions between the U.S. and the UK.
Johnson highlighted the enduring U.S.-UK alliance, shared history, and security interests, speaking against a backdrop of controversy over President Trump’s Greenland ambitions and recent criticism of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
#MikeJohnson #UKParliament #HouseSpeaker #USUKRelations
Mike Johnson UK Parliament,House Speaker Mike Johnson speech,Calm the Waters US UK,US UK relations,Trump Greenland controversy,Keir Starmer Chagos deal,transatlantic tensions,historic speech US speaker,Speaker Johnson landmark address,political news UK,US politics live,Diplomacy news,US UK alliance news,Greenland dispute news,Chagos
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you sincerely. Thank you Mr. Speaker, Lord Speaker, Ambassador Stephens, members of the
00:20House of Commons, members of the House of Lords, and so many esteemed guests. It is a great honor
00:25for us to be here. A tremendous pleasure to be with you all. Speaker Hoyle, thank you
00:30for those kind words, your gracious invitation to be here today, my friend. It means so much
00:35to us. It's a real detriment to follow Speaker Hoyle. I don't like to do this. At the G7
00:43Speaker's meetings, I just want you to know when he gets wound up and going, it's just
00:47like Churchill. And it goes on and on and on. And I try to speak before him at all times.
00:56I don't want to follow. But really, really grateful to be here. He has become a dear friend.
01:01And all of you, we've met so many great friends. My wife Kelly and I are truly touched by how
01:07warmly we've been received here and having met so many of you in the past couple of days.
01:12We walked away with this sense that we do have close and dear friends here across the pond.
01:17And we have this shared heritage. And we treasure that. It is a profound honor to be speaking
01:22in Parliament today to be the first U.S. Speaker of the House ever given this honor. And I take
01:27it very seriously. As proud Americans, it is as though we have returned to the spiritual
01:32birthplace of our own nation. And the history here, the weight of it is palpable, as you know.
01:39It gives you a certain sense of just being serious. I was going to roll on with a bunch
01:44of jokes this morning, but it doesn't feel right to be in this place at this time. We
01:49have returned at a pivotal moment, obviously, in the great histories of our countries to mark
01:55this anniversary that we have in our nation and to celebrate what we've achieved together
02:00in the past. And importantly, to face and overcome together the challenges of our present day.
02:07And I want to tell you, my friends, we will do that together. That's what I bring you that
02:12message.
02:13When I met with Prime Minister Starmer at Downing Street yesterday, I told him that I thought
02:16his national address a few hours earlier was well done. He noted, of course, that the
02:21U.K. and the U.S. are close allies and that our strong, constructive partnership all these
02:26years has been built on mutual respect and focused on results. I thought that was exactly the right
02:33message and the right tone. And because of that, we have always been able to work through our
02:37differences calmly as friends. We will continue to do that. I want to assure you this morning that
02:43that is still the case. I spoke to President Trump at length yesterday and I told him that I really
02:48felt that my mission here, even though we planned this back in the fall, we didn't know how the events
02:55would develop over the last few days. But I told the President that I felt that my mission here today
03:00was to encourage our friends and help to calm the waters, so to speak, and I hope to do so.
03:06As the Prime Minister said yesterday, let us look to agreement, continue our dialogue,
03:13and find a resolution just as we always have in the past. And in that process, I am confident that we
03:19can and will maintain and strengthen our special relationship between these two nations, send a
03:25message of unity and resolve to our allies around the world, and remind our adversaries and the
03:31terrorists and tyrants everywhere that our nations that are dedicated to freedom and justice and order
03:37and human dignity are stronger and more resolved now than ever before. I think it's a very important
03:44message. Of course, we do gather here at a unique and consequential moment in American history. This year,
03:51as noted, is the time we mark our 250th anniversary of our independence. Now, I know this is not a long
03:59span of time in the scale of human history. I get that. We were touring the thousand-year-old Windsor
04:04Palace a day or so ago, and that really put it all, set it into reality for us. At the dinner we had here
04:12last night that Speaker Hoyle and Lady Catherine graciously hosted for us, it was not lost on me that
04:19there at my table were items of silverware older than my country. Puts it in perspective. But this
04:26year, in particular, we remember just how far we really have come, how our nations have evolved and
04:31grown and strengthened in so many ways together. America's founders embarked on what was a radical
04:38experiment, of course, a government of, by, and for the people ruled by laws and based on the self-evident
04:46truth that all men are created equal and free. That experiment transformed 13 disparate distant
04:54colonies from the world's largest empire into what became the world's freest and most successful
05:00self-government in human history. For Americans, this year is not simply a celebration. It is an invitation,
05:07an invitation to come together and to ask what we are doing in our own time to preserve and fortify that
05:13experiment and all of the blessings of liberty and opportunity and security that we enjoy today and
05:19frankly, sometimes too often take for granted. We have a stewardship obligation to maintain these
05:25blessings and all of us in the West, all of us together, are facing real challenges today that we
05:30must acknowledge and confront and we do that best together. Across the pond, Congress and the Trump
05:37administration have been working very hard. We're trying to usher in a new golden age for our country,
05:41as we say. We're marshaling every resource we have to make America safer and stronger and more
05:46prosperous than ever before and I'm very bullish on the prospects of doing that. We must do this
05:53because we know those hostile to the West and to our shared values are engaging in increasingly
05:59sophisticated forms of subversion and espionage. We see China, Russia, and Iran grow more aggressive and
06:07emboldened as they intensify their efforts to exert economic, political, and military influence around
06:14the world. We see a callous disregard for basic human rights, new provocations, and even the theft of
06:21intellectual property on a scale like we have never seen before. Clearly, President Trump is taking
06:27seriously the modern and dynamic threats that China and Russia pose to our global security, especially,
06:33in focus the last few days as it relates to the Arctic. And while we can have thoughtful debate
06:38about, among our friends, about how best to counter these threats, we all certainly agree they must be
06:45countered. We ignore these threats at our peril. And I want to hasten to express our gratitude to the UK
06:51and to all of you for joining us in some of our most recent actions to deter these hostile regimes,
06:57including the recent seizure of a black market vessel seeking to circumvent oil sanctions. That was a big
07:02help to us. That kind of open dialogue and partnership is a great example of how we can work together to
07:08ensure our collective defense around the world. It is an objective and obvious truth that a strong America
07:16is good for the entire world and a strong UK is as well. At the same time, it's also obvious that we have
07:23to take care of our own houses, so to speak, before we take care of the neighborhood. And let's be honest,
07:29among friends here and both of our nations, there is a need today to fortify our houses against
07:34internal challenges as well. In the West, if we make an honest assessment, we must acknowledge that
07:40our long-term prosperity and security are currently being undermined by, let's call it a crisis of
07:46self-doubt. It's been developing now for years. Elite institutions today tell the young and
07:52impressionable that our story is one of oppression and hypocrisy and failure. Our brightest minds are
08:00too often taught to view our history only through the lens of its sins. And we see the work of
08:05international organizations and transnational bodies hinder the very spirit of creativity and
08:13industriousness and daring that our nations were built upon. We have faced this in America just as you have
08:19here, a truly menacing skepticism towards history and our national institutions. And it's even come to
08:27the point where even great heroes like Sir Winston Churchill are questioned for their legacy. What has
08:33taken hold is a mindset that defines itself not by what it loves and seeks to preserve, but instead by
08:40what it condemns and seeks to tear down. And this growing disaffection we see, particularly among our younger
08:45citizens, is a serious threat to the health of both our nations. If the next generation is never exposed to
08:53the deeper wisdom of the Western world, or the enduring tradition of the British Parliament, or the
08:59genius of America's model of Republican self-government, then why would they feel any obligation to defend or
09:06preserve them? Fortunately, history teaches us an important lesson. Just over half a century after American
09:14independence, our country faced a moment of reckoning. It was 1838, and for the first time in our short history,
09:20America's founding fathers, the men who had led us through the turbulent years of our young nation, were no longer there to
09:27guide us. A growing disregard for the rule of law had taken hold at that time, and the cries of mob rule
09:33threatened every part of our country. A young legislator at that time, concerned by what he saw as America's
09:39deteriorating regard for its past, charged his countrymen with an important choice. Would they uphold their duty and
09:47preserve the blessings for which their fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor? Or would they
09:53continue on the path of decline and self-destruction? The answer was simple, he said. This experiment in liberty could not
10:01survive unless the principles enshrined in the Declaration and institutionalized in our Constitution became their shared civic
10:09faith. That rising statement, he was just 28 years old at the time, would one day become president, and he would be
10:16called to confront the greatest stress test of the American experiment yet. His likeness stands just a few
10:22feet away from here, where we're gathered today, watching over Parliament Square. Abraham Lincoln, of course, wisely
10:29understood that the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the
10:35next. He knew that our national renewal would not come from repudiating our past, but rather from renewing and
10:44recommitting to our best principles, to appealing to the better angels of our nature. The struggle of Lincoln's time shows
10:53us that though America may be 250 years old, the question of how best to steward this grand experiment has always been with us. And age-old
11:01questions require age-old wisdom. In the West today, we see faith in our foundations and our shared inheritance
11:09weakening. And what we have to do is channel the wisdom of our predecessors to chart our own renewal.
11:18So what does renewal require? Just a few things. Well, first, it requires remembrance. This is a biblical
11:23admonition, in fact. We're to remember our blessings and from where we came. And the great British philosopher
11:29G.K. Chesterton warned, every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things. Things like the
11:38dignity of the individual, the stabilizing role of the family, the human yearning for meaning and purpose,
11:43and the indispensable relationship between freedom and virtue. In short, we have to remember our
11:50foundations and we have to describe what they are because the generation behind us seems not to
11:56understand this. As Chesterton observed, America was founded on a creed that was set forth, he said,
12:03with dogmatic and theological lucidity in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.
12:09We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator
12:14with certain inalienable rights, that among these are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
12:19happiness. That profound acknowledgement of obvious and undeniable truth shook the foundations of western
12:26democracy and with it the course of human history. Our founders recognized that all of us are made in
12:32the image of God. And because of that, every single person has inestimable dignity and value. And our value
12:40is not related in any way to the color of our skin or what town or village we hail from, what our talents are,
12:46et cetera. Our value is inherent because it is given to us by our creator. We built an entire nation
12:54upon that premise. And just as our citizens are endowed with God-given and unalienable rights,
13:00all nations and all people should adhere to the obvious laws of nature and of nature's God,
13:04as our documents say. In his farewell address, the father of our country, George Washington,
13:09gave all of his advice that echoes down through his countrymen, even today. And echoes down through the
13:15generations and reminding us how we would keep this republic, how we would keep this grand experiment
13:20in self-government. And he said famously, of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political
13:26prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. And John Adams was our second president,
13:33and he said famously, our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
13:38inadequate to the government of any other. The late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put it even more
13:44simply. Freedom, she said, will destroy itself if it has no purpose. Lady Thatcher, just like our
13:52founders, understood that free societies that lacked a shared moral and civic foundation inevitably turn
13:58elsewhere to compensate. And that reminds us of another important lesson from history. A healthy renewal
14:04requires the participation and stewardship of each successive generation. Here, too, the example of
14:10the American Revolution proves so instructive. Our founders didn't seek to build a new nation on pure
14:16abstraction or mere ideology, nor did they abandon the brilliance of the British tradition, even if they
14:23opposed the empire itself. Instead, they drew on the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world,
14:28inheritance rooted in the wisdom of classical thinkers, asserted in the Magna Carta,
14:34embraced in common law in the writings of John Locke, and articulated in the Bill of Rights of 1689.
14:42These principles found, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, their most famous expression in the
14:47American Declaration of Independence. For Americans, our independence is not a rebuke of our British roots,
14:53but rather a renewal of what is best, the best of what Britain had to offer the world.
15:00If renewal requires remembrance and stewardship, it also requires responsible citizens. Strong
15:06institutions are essential, of course, but when people are taught that their lives are determined
15:10by systems and structures, responsibility quickly disappears, and with it, their purpose and their
15:16meaning. In both of our nations, we have too many people today on the sidelines, particularly younger
15:21generations. We should want our citizens involved, gainfully employed, and contributing to their
15:28communities, of course. Stable and thriving societies need families that raise children. They need churches
15:33and communities that form character, and patriotic men and women dedicated to leaving their country
15:39better than they found it. The simple truth is that freedom cannot survive if we outsource our responsibility
15:47as citizens. And this is a fact that remains true at a national level. We cannot fail in our responsibility
15:53to protect our people and their security. Amongst our allies, we see the UK and Europe stepping up as
16:01faithful partners here, and I want to declare that today. Whether it's NATO's nation's historic commitment
16:08to raise their investment in defense, which we applaud, or the AUKUS alliance, deepening its
16:13cooperation in submarines and undersea defense, our partnership is proving that nations can prioritize
16:20their individual interests responsibly, and at the same time, make strides towards strengthening
16:26alliances and preserving the freedom and sovereignty of our nation states. And our current US ambassador
16:33to the UK, Warren Stevens, who sits here, up here with me today, said it recently very well,
16:38he said, America first does not mean and will never mean America alone. Finally, renewal takes courage.
16:46From the defeat of Napoleon to the heroic resistance to the Blitz, to the bravery of our soldiers and the
16:53liberation of Western Europe, the British people have given the world some of the greatest demonstrations
16:58of courage in human history. You are the heirs of Burke and Locke and Smith, the home of Shakespeare,
17:05the cradle of free speech. You are the birthplace of the industrial revolution and the nation that helped
17:11end the slave trade. And from these shores, you set sail to pioneer a new world built on British custom,
17:18British fortitude, and British law. Together, we, all of us, are the legacy of those ancient ancestors who came
17:26before us. Their courage is part of who we are and we do well to remember that. Today, it takes our courage,
17:34clarity, and conviction to defend truth just as our ancestors did. And it means being able to say that
17:41some things are true and good and enduring and others are not. And to call evil and madness what it is.
17:49It means repairing what we see in clear disrepair from restoring, for example, secure borders that
17:56protect from the real and measurable harms of mass uncontrolled migration to pushing back on policies
18:03that erode our citizens' most basic liberties, especially the fundamental freedoms of speech and
18:08conscience. History teaches us we can never go down the road of censoring and silencing unpopular
18:14opinions because liberty is kept alive in the free marketplace of ideas. History further teaches
18:20us that the best solution to the problem of free speech is always more speech. And those being
18:26unjustly persecuted for exercising those freedoms, such as Jimmy Lai, the British national being held
18:32in Hong Kong, must be defended. And the US stands with the UK as you work to free him. As we chart our
18:39renewal, America has no intention of walking alone. In fact, to do so would be self-defeating.
18:44More than ever before, we need the British people to be great and proud and patriotic. And you are.
18:51To work in close concert with us as partners and friends and to defend the security of the Western world.
18:58That means secure borders. It means obviously serious investments in our shared defense
19:03and maintaining strategic strongholds around the world. And we will figure this out together.
19:09But again, the surest way that we protect the special relationship long term is by renewing and
19:16recommitting to our foundational principles. As Churchill taught us, the strongest alliances are between
19:23kindred countries of kindred principles. What has always set us apart from the rest of the rest of the world,
19:29our commitment to liberty, our pursuit of excellence, our desire to put faith and family at the center of our lives.
19:35These are things that distinguish their free world from regimes that trample on the most basic
19:42principles of democracy and human dignity. While the West is not without its flaws,
19:48our greatest strength has always been our faith in human progress
19:52and our capacity for self-correction. Strong and lethal militaries matter. Robust and thriving economies
20:00matter. But they mean little if we forget what we're fighting for. Churchill understood that the fate of
20:07the West would ultimately be decided not on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds and souls of
20:11its people. And Ronald Reagan saw this a generation later. When he came to Parliament at the height of the
20:18Cold War, the first U.S. President ever to do so, his message was clear. He said the free world would prevail
20:24against the scourge of communism only if it recovered its confidence and resolve in itself. And today,
20:32I believe we stand at a similar moment. Together, our strength is real and the fate of the free world
20:38rests on our will to defend and preserve it. Today, ultimately, our renewal depends on whether we,
20:46as leaders and citizens, equip the next generation. Whether we arm them with the confidence to articulate
20:53the ideals of the West and the will to defend them, not to shrink into national reluctance,
20:59but to stand strong in national pride. Because our countries really do have an unparalleled heritage of
21:05achieving good and advancing mankind both individually and in this trusted partnership. Thankfully, our special
21:12relationship has always proven much more powerful and enduring than the enemies we face. Together,
21:19we represent a common history and heritage and the greatest, most free, most prosperous, most successful
21:25and benevolent civilization the world has ever known. And it will endure only as long as we reject,
21:32decline and recommit to our foundations. I'll leave you with the thought of Ronald Reagan one more. He said,
21:37freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children
21:43in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on. And just like all things,
21:50great civilizations don't defy the laws of gravity. They rise and fall with the individual actions of each
21:56individual generation. So today, my friends, we have great reason for hope. Today, I see the UK with renewed
22:04sovereignty and self-determination. I see our European allies with an advantage over our adversaries and
22:10in economic power, and most importantly, in spirit. I see younger generations rejecting the indulgence of
22:17self-interest and embracing pursuits of greater importance and higher purpose. And I see those who
22:23cherish the lessons of Churchill and Lincoln who are ready to offer this age heroes of their own. With the
22:31right choices and the right leadership, we can chart our renewal. And we can seize the great moment
22:36together if we truly seek it and fight for it. Thank you again for this profound honor. God bless you all.
22:43God bless the United Kingdom. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you.
23:01God bless you all.
23:06God bless you all.
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