House Speaker Mike Johnson heads to Florida for more Trump butt-kissing
Donald Trump has made House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job impossible, but Johnson keeps going back for more. The embattled speaker is at Mar-a-Lago Friday to announce a big “election integrity” initiative. The announcement is the pretense, anyway; Johnson’s real goal is likely to try to get Trump to call off Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her efforts to oust him from the speaker’s seat. Making it all the more demeaning for Johnson, this ring-kissing exercise is happening the day after Trump engineered another humiliating blow to him on a floor vote. Trump told Republicans to “KILL FISA” and 19 of them did just that, delivering Johnson’s fourth loss on a procedural vote. As Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner points out, that’s a thing that is not supposed to happen. “During both tenures of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the number of rule votes lost was zero,” Sumner wrote. “Throw in former Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner and it’s still zero.” Some of the hard-line House members who fell in line with Trump on that vote are fine with Trump calling off Greene—as long as it comes with Trump continuing to call the shots about what happens on the floor. “Trump has got a following; he’s our nominee. … It’s now Trump and Biden—there is no other choice. So it’s good that they’re getting together,” Freedom Caucus member Ralph Norman told NBC News. He added, according to NBC, that “he expects Trump to impress upon Johnson that his No. 1 focus should be passing new restrictions on immigration.” Republicans also seem to think they need Trump’s permission to continue to back Johnson. “It’s a good thing for the conference to see that the president still supports Speaker Johnson,” Rep. Max Miller of Ohio told The Wall Street Journal. Trump doesn’t even need to say anything directly in order to endorse Johnson, Miller added. “If you don’t want to support somebody, you certainly aren’t going to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.” Of course, Johnson has been stuffed deep in Trump’s baggy pocket all along—from leading election denial efforts in 2020 to tanking the first real shot at bipartisan immigration reform in years—yet Trump keeps shivving him. Why did it take nearly six months and several near shutdowns for Congress to fund government operations? Because MAGA House members kept fighting Trump’s battles against the Biden administration. Trump’s already the de facto speaker of the House. This meeting between Johnson and Trump will likely cement that. RELATED STORIES: Freedom Caucus fumes over deal to avert government shutdown Speaker Mike Johnson is proudly taking orders from Trump on immigration Who runs the House? Donald Trump runs the House It's only April, but the Washington Post's new report on GOP golden boy Tim Sheehy is a strong contender for the craziest political story of the year. On this week's episode of "The Downballot," co-hosts David Nir and David Beard dissect the countless contradictions in Sheehy's tales about a bullet wound that he either received in Afghanistan or in a national park three years later. The Davids also explain why the Arizona Supreme Court's appalling new ruling banning nearly all abortions could lead to two conservative justices losing their seats this fall. Embedded Content Campaign Action
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Donald Trump has made House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job impossible, but Johnson keeps going back for more. The embattled speaker is at Mar-a-Lago Friday to announce a big “election integrity” initiative. The announcement is the pretense, anyway; Johnson’s real goal is likely to try to get Trump to call off Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her efforts to oust him from the speaker’s seat.
Making it all the more demeaning for Johnson, this ring-kissing exercise is happening the day after Trump engineered another humiliating blow to him on a floor vote. Trump told Republicans to “KILL FISA” and 19 of them did just that, delivering Johnson’s fourth loss on a procedural vote. As Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner points out, that’s a thing that is not supposed to happen.
“During both tenures of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the number of rule votes lost was zero,” Sumner wrote. “Throw in former Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner and it’s still zero.”
Some of the hard-line House members who fell in line with Trump on that vote are fine with Trump calling off Greene—as long as it comes with Trump continuing to call the shots about what happens on the floor.
“Trump has got a following; he’s our nominee. … It’s now Trump and Biden—there is no other choice. So it’s good that they’re getting together,” Freedom Caucus member Ralph Norman told NBC News. He added, according to NBC, that “he expects Trump to impress upon Johnson that his No. 1 focus should be passing new restrictions on immigration.”
Republicans also seem to think they need Trump’s permission to continue to back Johnson.
“It’s a good thing for the conference to see that the president still supports Speaker Johnson,” Rep. Max Miller of Ohio told The Wall Street Journal. Trump doesn’t even need to say anything directly in order to endorse Johnson, Miller added. “If you don’t want to support somebody, you certainly aren’t going to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.”
Of course, Johnson has been stuffed deep in Trump’s baggy pocket all along—from leading election denial efforts in 2020 to tanking the first real shot at bipartisan immigration reform in years—yet Trump keeps shivving him. Why did it take nearly six months and several near shutdowns for Congress to fund government operations? Because MAGA House members kept fighting Trump’s battles against the Biden administration.
Trump’s already the de facto speaker of the House. This meeting between Johnson and Trump will likely cement that.
RELATED STORIES:
Freedom Caucus fumes over deal to avert government shutdown
Speaker Mike Johnson is proudly taking orders from Trump on immigration
Who runs the House? Donald Trump runs the House
It's only April, but the Washington Post's new report on GOP golden boy Tim Sheehy is a strong contender for the craziest political story of the year. On this week's episode of "The Downballot," co-hosts David Nir and David Beard dissect the countless contradictions in Sheehy's tales about a bullet wound that he either received in Afghanistan or in a national park three years later. The Davids also explain why the Arizona Supreme Court's appalling new ruling banning nearly all abortions could lead to two conservative justices losing their seats this fall.
