Mike Johnson says politicians shouldn't call opponents 'enemies' - but won't criticize Trump for doing just that [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: The Independent

[link:|https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-johnson-trump-politician-enemies-b2827820.htmlMike Johnson says politicians shouldn’t call opponents ‘enemies’ - but won’t criticize Trump for doing just that]

Johnson defended Trump, saying he has been called ‘the most despicable names’ by people on the left

Isabel Keane
in New York
Tuesday 16 September 2025 21:37 BST

House Speaker Mike Johnson said political leaders should not call their opponents “enemies” — but declined to criticize Donald Trump for his long-running habit of doing exactly that.

Johnson urged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to respectfully engage with each other and to “turn down the temperature and the violent rhetoric” following the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last Wednesday.

“Leaders cannot call their political opponents Nazis and fascists and enemies of the state because they disagree with their policy priorities. I mean, this is something we should have learned in grade school,” Johnson said during Tuesday’s weekly House Republican Leadership press conference on Capitol Hill.

-snip-

When asked by CNN if he would urge Trump, who has long labeled Democrats as “evil” and the “enemy,” to change his own rhetoric, Johnson said the president “has been called the most despicable names by people on the left for a long, long time.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-johnson-trump-politician-enemies-b2827820.html

Alternate link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/mike-johnson-says-politicians-shouldn-203715693.html