Speaker Johnson has had his back against the wall since yesterday over all the backlash that forced him to kill the omnibloat continuing resolution bill, which was essentially a Democrat wish list of spending programs and other garbage items to make them vote for it.
One day later and President-elect Trump is still backing Johnson, but only if he gets tough on spending, saying he’ll easily win his speakership in January if he does.
Here’s more from The Hill:
President-elect Trump on Thursday said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can remain in the leadership role if he is tough on spending, while Johnson is pivoting to plan B to fund the government ahead of Friday’s deadline to avert a shutdown.
“If the Speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” Trump told Fox News Digital in an interview on Thursday morning.
Some GOP lawmakers have questioned their support for Johnson due to his handling of the end-of-year spending deal, which has thrown his grasp on his gavel into uncertain territory ahead of a critical Jan. 3 vote on who will hold the gavel. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) pledged to oppose Johnson on the House floor next month and a handful of other Republicans are not saying if they will support him.
Trump told Fox News Digital that he warned Republicans against supporting legislation that doesn’t tackle the debt limit, calling for those lawmakers to be primaried.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” he said.
Johnson has his marching orders and, quite frankly, I’m glad that President Trump, VP Vance and Elon Musk are pushing him in the right direction. You wouldn’t think he’d need this but he has proved to be awfully weak given the small minority of Republicans. Yesterday felt like the beginning of a new era when it comes to Republicans being far more responsive to the people and it was quite refreshing. Big thanks to Elon Musk for making it happen.