Despite opposition, Trump supported the return of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the US House. donald trump news
United States President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Johnson’s continued leadership of the House of Representatives, in an apparent effort to limit Republican discord in the new year.
In a post on his online platform Truth Social on Monday, Trump appealed to his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base to rally support for Johnson, who currently serves as speaker of the House.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard-working, religious man. He’ll do the right thing and we’ll keep winning. Mike has my full and complete support. Ask!!!” Trump wrote.
But the road ahead for Johnson is likely to be tough. Following the November general election, a new Congress convenes on January 3. And Republicans are preparing for a tense showdown over who will be chosen as the next speaker, the highest official of the House of Representatives.
As the current speaker, Johnson is the most likely candidate. But his role in passing a last-minute budget bill earlier this month revealed rifts in the Republican caucus — and a potential backlash over his leadership.
A representative from Louisiana who is known for his socially conservative policies, Johnson will need every Republican vote to remain in the speaker’s chair.
When the 119th Congress convenes, Republicans will claim one of the smallest House majorities in modern history. They will have 219 of the total 435 seats in the House, giving them barely more than 50 percent of the votes in the chamber.
Democrats traditionally vote for the House leader of their own party. As a result, Johnson could also lose the speakership to a handful of Republican holdouts.
Already, several Republican members of the House have come out in opposition to Johnson’s leadership. For example, Thomas Massie of Kentucky has been vocal that he will not vote for the Louisiana representative.
“I will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson,” Massey wrote on social media on December 27. “A weakened legislative branch will not be able to achieve the mandate given to Trump and Congress by voters in November because of the quagmire.”
One cause of discord is Johnson’s support for a bipartisan budget bill, which was ultimately signed into law on December 21, averting a government shutdown over the holiday season.
Many Republicans opposed the measure because it failed to rein in spending. Others, including Massey, expressed concern that an early version of the bill included provisions that went beyond the budget. He called for a “clean” budget bill instead.
And then missed a key priority that Trump himself had pushed. Trump had called for the budget bill to include language raising or eliminating the debt ceiling, which limits how much the federal government can borrow.
Traditionally, the federal budget is negotiated separately from the debt ceiling. But on social media, Trump called for debt ceiling negotiations to be held under outgoing President Joe Biden, a Democrat, rather than under his incoming administration.
Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the debt ceiling has been suspended until January 1, 2025.
But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has already warned that the federal government could reach its borrowing limit by the middle of the month, limiting its ability to pay its bills and potentially hitting the nation’s credit score. There may be an impact.
Trump himself is scheduled to assume office for a second term on January 20. He has called the debt ceiling a “guillotine” hanging over his administration.
Ultimately, the Johnson-led budget bill passed without the debt ceiling legislation that Trump had sought.
Such disagreements have caused at least one former speaker to lose his chair. Johnson’s predecessor, former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, similarly oversaw passage of a bipartisan budget bill that was controversial in his party’s right wing.
This led to a reprisal against McCarthy’s leadership in October 2023. Members of the Freedom Caucus, a coalition of staunch conservatives, worked together to oust McCarthy from the Speakership in a historic vote – the first time that a Speaker was removed by a motion to resign. His seat.
But that decision threw the House Republican caucus into chaos for weeks, as party members struggled to find a new leader. Johnson was not the first choice: he was the fourth candidate to be nominated for the position.
Since then, Johnson has faced a similar effort to remove him from the speech.
However, on Monday Trump tried to distance the Republican Party from that past turmoil. In his social media posts, he tried to portray the Democrats as the party of discord.
“We are the party of common sense, which is the primary reason we won,” Trump wrote.
He then repeated false claims about election fraud, this time focusing on House races in states like California. “Everything was won with ease, calmness and professionalism.”
For his part, Johnson thanked Trump for his support as he seeks a second full year as speaker.
“Thank you, President Trump! “As always, I am honored and grateful for your support,” Johnson wrote on social media. He also expressed his support for Trump’s second term agenda.
“Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in a new golden age for America. The American people demand and deserve that we not waste time. let’s get to work!”
However, the question is whether Trump’s support will prove decisive in the upcoming voting. Massey has already reiterated that Johnson will not get his vote, no matter what Trump says.
“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Massey said on social media, referencing the previous Trump-backed House speaker. wrote.
Massie warned that Johnson could pave the way for Democrat priorities and unbridled government spending, as he accused Ryan of doing. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with Democrats to send money to Ukraine, spy on Americans, and blow up the budget.”
