Trump says he stands with Speaker Mike Johnson amid threat to oust him
PALM BEACH, Fla. – Donald Trump defended embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, saying he stands with the Louisiana Republican as one of the former president’s loyal allies in Congress targets Johnson for removal.
It was the first time that Trump has addressed the roiling effort to oust Johnson from his position by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Johnson and Trump appeared at a news conference together just hours after the House passed an extension of key intelligence-gathering legislation – which the hard right had thwarted earlier in the week as a warning shot to the speaker.
“We’re getting along very well with the speaker. And I get along very well with Marjorie,” Trump said.
“It’s not an easy situation for any speaker,” Trump added. “I think he’s doing a very good job. He’s doing about as good as you’re going to do. And I’m sure that Marjorie understands that, she’s a very good friend of mine and I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker.”
Johnson is in possibly the most precarious stretch of his five-month speakership, as he seeks to negotiate a national security package with funding for Ukraine and other foreign allies, while fending off a challenge to his job. Greene introduced a motion to remove Johnson from the speakership last month, but has said she would force the House to consider ousting him depending on how he handles Ukraine funding and reauthorization of a controversial provision in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act .
Currently, any lawmaker can move to vacate the House speaker position, which happened last year in a historic moment that pushed Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – a Trump ally – out of the role.
Trump said Friday it was “unfortunate” for any member to bring up the possibility of removing the speaker “because right now we have much bigger problems.”
Earlier Friday on Capitol Hill, Greene skirted a question over whether a forceful endorsement of Johnson by Trump would dissuade her from triggering a motion to oust the speaker.
“I never speak for (Trump) or say what he should or shouldn’t do,” Greene said. “He’s the leader of the party. He is our Republican presidential candidate that I’m supporting and trying to help win in November.”
But Greene added she didn’t think Trump would be “very happy” about Johnson voting against incorporating an amendment to the FISA bill that far-right Republicans and the former president supported.
Asked whether he supports the bill after instructing House Republicans earlier in the week to “KILL FISA,” Trump said he is “not a big fan of FISA” but that Johnson’s revised version will give him and his supporters on the Hill a chance to reform the measure in two years if he’s elected president.
Friday’s meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida was not spurred by Greene’s threat, according to two people familiar with the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about their relationship. Instead, Trump and Johnson have found common ground on two issues that unite them: election integrity and border security. They decided to unveil a legislative effort together during Johnson’s already-scheduled visit to Mar-a-Lago. Trump and Johnson met privately before speaking to reporters.
At the news conference, Johnson detailed a new effort in the House targeted at noncitizen voting, as Trump and Republicans continue to make the southern border a top campaign issue. Johnson said that “there are so many millions of illegals in the country” that even if a fraction were able to vote, they could swing the election. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and there are very few documented cases of noncitizens voting.
Johnson began forming a relationship with Trump in early 2020 after he was chosen to serve on the White House defense team in the president’s first Senate impeachment trial, according to the people familiar with the relationship. Later that year, Johnson recruited 125 House Republicans to sign on to a legal brief that asked the Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election wins in four key states. Johnson also leaned on his credentials as a constitutional lawyer to help colleagues sharpen their arguments against certifying the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a statement ahead of Friday’s news conference, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the former chairman of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said that the “sham event at Trump’s country club should remind the American people of a dangerous truth: Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and a danger to our Constitution.”
Johnson’s ongoing support of Trump – he has repeatedly described himself as a MAGA Republican – earned him the former president’s backing when he ran for speaker after the ouster of McCarthy. After tanking a speakership bid by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Trump posted on social media that while he was not going to formally choose among the candidates in the race, his “strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson.”
Since becoming speaker, Johnson has visited Mar-a-Lago multiple times for private meetings and fundraisers.
Johnson and Trump are often in touch, with both men trading notes from their vantage points at the top of Republican politics, according to the people familiar with the relationship. The former president keeps the speaker up to speed on the latest polls in states and developments in his campaign, while Johnson informs Trump about what is happening in the House.
Far-right members are also keeping a watchful eye on how Johnson handles Ukraine funding. Greene has said she would move to oust him from the speakership if he puts such a bill on the House floor. During the news conference, Trump was noncommittal on Ukraine aid. “We’re looking at it right now,” he said. “They’re talking about it and we’re thinking about making it in the form of a loan.”
Republican speakers of the House have had to keep Trump close. McCarthy began forming a close relationship with Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, and his allegiance to Trump earned him the nickname “My Kevin.” McCarthy often leveraged that alliance for his political ambitions, frequently telling Trump to hold off on endorsing more-extreme candidates in swing districts, which helped Republicans win the majority in the 2022 midterms.
But their relationship ebbed and flowed over the years. The most obvious break and reconciliation happened after McCarthy blamed the insurrection at the Capitol on Trump, but he later went to Mar-a-Lago to make up. Though McCarthy often followed Trump’s lead, the former president stayed on the sidelines when McCarthy was under fire by far-right members of the conference last year, ultimately resulting in Trump not defending him ahead of his ouster from the speakership.
As for the current speaker, Trump said, “I stand with the speaker. We’ve had a very good relationship.”
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Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.