Mike Johnson defends administration’s deal with Iran despite skepticism from Senate Republicans
The House speaker said he wants negotiations to play out before passing judgment
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on October 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Breaking with many Senate Republicans who have expressed skepticism about various elements of the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding with Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the deal on Tuesday.
House Republicans returned to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since the deal with Iran was finalized.
“We need to keep forward with good progress, the details are still being negotiated, so I’m not going to prejudge,” Johnson said.
“There’s a lot of moving parts right now,” Johnson said, when asked whether he has concerns about the lifting of oil sanctions under the agreement, as he did for the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal. “It is something the Trump administration is working around the clock on. I trust that they’re going to come to a lasting solution on that. The world desperately needs it and we do as well.”
When pressed, he said that he has “always been a supporter of strong sanctions against Iran” but added that there’s “a lot of moving parts to this” and that he’s “not going to tell the administration how to negotiate that.”
Johnson added that he is “heartened to see” gas prices decreasing and the Strait of Hormuz reopened.
While several Republican defense hawks in the Senate have criticized the administration’s deal with and concessions to Iran, others say they want to see the full effects of the agreement and the potential outcome of negotiations first.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said at an Orthodox Union luncheon on Tuesday that he is currently weighing in privately with Republican leadership and the White House about his views on the deal, “in the hopes that at the end of all of this, that Israel is in a better neighborhood, and I believe that … can happen.” He said he would speak out publicly if “appropriate.”
Other hawkish Republicans have pointed blame for the deal away from the president himself.
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