Facebook
X
LinkdIn
Copy Link
Mike Johnson’s status as an accidental speaker, thrust into his role in part because it was so undesirable or impossible for other longer-tenured members to achieve, was always going to be tested once there was a Republican in the White House again. And since that Republican turns out to be Donald Trump, currently the acting president in everything but title, Johnson’s decision-making was going to become all the more controversial, subject to the whims and leanings of Trump’s political instincts.
It turns out we didn’t even have to wait until the inauguration to find out what that looks like. Johnson’s attempt to offer his conference a dog’s breakfast of a 1,547-page continuing resolution, stuffed with all sorts of unrelated policies, barely lasted a full news cycle before Trump nuked it from on high, with Elon Musk applauding. The incoming president laid out his demands online, including a debt ceiling hike — an early one, considering that the debt limit shouldn’t be hit until next summer — and even raised once again the prospect of getting rid of the limit entirely.
Per the Wall Street Journal:
He demanded Republicans drop what he called Democratic “bells and whistles,” a reference to a number of provisions in the bill ranging from money for a Baltimore bridge to new rules on pharmacy-benefit managers to a trade pact with Haiti. He also threatened that any Republican who opposed a debt ceiling adjustment — and many have in the past — would face a primary challenge in the next election. Trump told NBC News that getting rid of the debt ceiling altogether would be the “smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely.”
The bungled CR has left Republican House leadership scrambling, and raises new questions about Johnson’s ability to hold his conference together in its upcoming speaker vote. There are numerous other ambitious members who Trump might like to see in that job — Rand Paul did the audacious thing of floating Musk himself for the job, which seems a tad thirsty for the clicks. In an interview with Fox, Trump seemed to dismiss the idea of the need for an immediate change, indicating Johnson will retain his speakership easily, just so long as he acts “decisively and tough.” But how decisive can you really be in that unrelenting job with Trump breathing down your neck and nothing but bad options in front of you?
What this incident really indicates is that unlike his first rodeo with Paul Ryan, Trump is going to have no qualms pushing Johnson around whenever these types of negotiations crop up. The total party takeover translates to full power over the Congress, at least for the next two years. And if Trump is displeased, there’s no question he’s quick to make a change.
Leave a Reply