Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is working to stay in the good graces of former President Donald Trump as he attempts to defuse a possible rebellion by his right flank in the House.
Trump has repeatedly voiced support for Johnson as hard-liners, upset by a series of deals Johnson cut in the last month, weigh whether to attempt his ouster as speaker.
Democrats have offered to save Johnson should House rebels pull the trigger on a no-confidence vote, largely out of gratitude that he ushered Ukraine aid, critical to President Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda, through the House. But Johnson wants to avoid the messy spectacle altogether and has turned to his party’s standard-bearer to keep Republicans in line.
The starkest example of that outreach was his trip to Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, a visit ostensibly about election integrity but that came as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) threatened to follow through with the removal vote.
Trump gave Johnson his public support and called the idea of removing him counterproductive.
Johnson has also used campaign season to his advantage. He will attend a Palm Beach, Florida, donor retreat headlined by Trump this weekend, according to a source familiar with his plans, and reportedly wanted the former president to keynote a major fundraiser for House Republicans in Dallas.
Trump could not attend the latter fundraiser, held last week, because of his criminal trial in New York, but Johnson helped secure Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a possible vice presidential nominee for Trump, as his replacement.
Bringing the former president over to his side has empowered Johnson as speaker. He succeeded in passing Ukraine aid in no small part because he accommodated Trump, who opposes the war with Russia, with legislative changes.
The former president ultimately decided not to come out against the bill, viewed with skepticism by many House Republicans, because Johnson embraced his idea of turning part of the assistance into a forgivable loan. The same can be said of his accommodations in a GOP debate over extending a controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program.
But the broader purpose of Johnson’s outreach is limiting conservative blowback, for those compromises and one on 2024 spending that have upset hard-liners in the last month.
Trump has repeatedly expressed that he thinks Johnson is doing a “good job,” going so far as to defend his deal-cutting with congressional Democrats. The speaker controls a wafer-thin majority in the House, while Democrats run the White House and Senate.
“Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK? It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do,” Trump told reporters last week in New York.
Given that majority, even a single defection poses a risk to Johnson, meaning reporters have hung on to every word of Greene, who has explicitly said Johnson will be “vacated.” Meanwhile, two other Republicans have co-sponsored her motion, giving the threat more weight.
But so far, Greene has not forced a vote, and many of the Republicans angry with the speaker are loyal to the former president. If anyone can head off a mutiny, it will be Trump, who has newfound sway over the GOP after becoming its de facto nominee for president for the third cycle in a row.
Johnson’s inroads with Trump have not been without apparent stumbles. He raised eyebrows in Trumpworld after the Mar-a-Lago visit when he declared that he and the former president were “100% united” on “big agenda items” like Ukraine and FISA.
His spokesman, Raj Shah, issued a late-night statement a day later clarifying that Johnson “did not intend” to suggest the two leaders are “fully aligned.”
Johnson needs to look no further than his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, to know what happens when you don’t have the public backing of the former president.
Trump leaned on the House’s rebels as McCarthy struggled to ascend to the speakership at the start of the new Congress, but he stayed relatively quiet nine months later as a handful of conservatives ousted him.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who set in motion the revolt, even implied with glee that Trump supported the move.
McCarthy attempted to build a close relationship with Trump, making a controversial trip down to Mar-a-Lago shortly after the Jan. 6 riot, but the former president apparently considered him disloyal for not endorsing his 2024 run for president sooner. His inability to expunge Trump’s two impeachments were also black marks, according to the Washington Post.
Johnson does not have the same rapport with Trump as some other Republicans. He was a junior member of leadership and had only been in Congress for four terms when he became speaker. But he seemingly is attempting to avoid McCarthy’s mistakes.
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He endorsed Trump three weeks after winning the gavel and has made election integrity, a nod to Trump’s stolen election claims, a legislative priority.
He announced legislation at Mar-a-Lago that would require proof of citizenship to vote, designed to address Trump’s unfounded allegation that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the 2020 election.
