President-elect Trump supplied his full and complete endorsement of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday, days earlier than a Home vote on Friday to elect a brand new Speaker.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!” Trump wrote in a publish on Reality Social.
Trump’s public endorsement might be key to a win by Johnson, who can solely afford a handful of GOP defections and be elected Speaker.
Anger from GOP members about how Johnson has dealt with varied points, together with the end-of-year funding package deal to maintain the federal government open, has thrown Johnson’s Speakership into query.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has stated he is not going to help Johnson, and a number of other different hard-line conservatives is not going to decide to supporting him.
Due to the razor-thin Home GOP majority, Johnson can not afford to lose multiple Republican vote for Speaker, assuming each member is current and votes for a candidate.
The sign of help got here on the finish of a publish by which Trump flaunted his electoral victory and took swipes at Democrats for operating a “very costly ‘sinking ship,’” and “embracing DOJ & FBI WEAPONIZATION against their political opponent, ME.”
“BUT IT DIDN’T WORK, IT WAS A DISASTER!!!” Trump stated. “LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN. The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration.”
Many GOP lawmakers had signaled that the query of whether or not anybody else would oppose Johnson within the Jan. 3 Speaker vote would largely rely upon the president-elect.
“It’s going to be more up to Trump than anybody else. He’s going to weigh in on it, I’m sure,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who wouldn’t decide to supporting Johnson, stated earlier than the Home left for the Christmas vacation.
The help for Johnson from Trump is especially notable given the tensions between the 2 over the end-of-year funding package deal.
Trump made a last-minute demand to lift the debt ceiling as a part of a short-term funding invoice, eager to take away the specter of Democrats utilizing it as a leverage level later in 2025. Johnson, although, couldn’t ship on that request on account of Republican opposition.
As a substitute, Home Republicans struck an inside settlement to lift the debt restrict by $1.5 trillion, paired with $2.5 trillion in spending cuts, as a part of a reconciliation invoice Republicans are planning to push by means of Trump’s legislative agenda — in a course of that bypasses the necessity to get help from Democrats.
However Trump reiterated his name to lift the debt restrict Sunday evening, signaling his help for a a lot completely different plan.
“The Democrats must be forced to take a vote on this treacherous issue NOW, during the Biden Administration, and not in June,” Trump stated in a Reality Social publish. “They should be blamed for this potential disaster, not the Republicans!”
But in addition in that publish, Trump appeared in charge former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the debt restrict points: “The extension of the Debt Ceiling by a previous Speaker of the House, a good man and a friend of mine … will go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years.”
Up to date at 10:36 a.m. EST
