WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threw his weight behind House Speaker Mike Johnson amid questions about the Louisiana Republican’s future in the role.
The endorsement comes just days before the lower chamber will vote on the person who will hold the influential position during what will be a Republican trifecta in Washington.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social that boasted about the Republican Party’s electoral victory in November and slammed Democrats’ campaign spending, Trump referred to Johnson as a “good, hard working, religious man.”
“He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN,” Trump’s post continued. “Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!”
Johnson thanked Trump for the nod in a post on X on Monday, writing “Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America.”
Trump’s full-force backing of Johnson appears to squash speculation about the president-elect’s support for Johnson after a bruising battle to keep the government funded ahead of the holidays stirred questions about his standing in the position.
The speaker’s handling of the House’s passage of a short-term spending bill just hours ahead of the deadline to avoid a shutdown earlier this month irked some Republicans in the lower chamber, already leading one, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky, to outright declare he won’t support Johnson for the role in January.
While stopping short of saying he would not back Johnson’s bid, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., on Monday criticized the Republican leader for not being “artful” in navigating Democrats’ opposition to the president-elect’s agenda over the last year and a half.
“As these things always go, right up to the wire, people are going to negotiate for different positions, but things have to change, and I think that Speaker Johnson, he understands that,” Perry told Fox Business on Monday. “And if he is going to be speaker, things are going to have to change.”
Perry told Fox Business last week that he was keeping his “options open” when it came to his vote in the speaker race.
Similarly, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, told Fox Business last week that he was previously in Johnson’s corner but now believes his party should take another look at its options.
“We do need to consider whether — if we’re going to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda — whether the current leadership is what we need,” Harris said.
Days before averting the shutdown, Trump came out against the initial spending deal Johnson struck to keep the government’s lights on and appeared to surprise leaders by demanding an increase to the debt ceiling be included in the funding bill. But dozens of House Republicans bucked Johnson’s attempt to pass funding legislation that included a suspension of the debt limit, leading the speaker to shepard through a spending bill that ignored Trump’s request.
Johnson took over the House’s top role in October 2023 after a group of Republicans voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy following a government funding fight.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., warned his colleagues about starting another battle over the speakership, calling the removal of McCarthy from the role “the single stupidest thing I've ever seen in politics.”
“With that said, removing Mike Johnson would equally be as stupid,” Lawler continued. “The fact is that these folks are playing with fire. And if they think they're somehow going to get a more conservative speaker, they're kidding themselves.”
A fresh Congress is set to convene Friday, when the lower chamber will pick its leader for the new session in which Republicans will control both the House and Senate and Trump will be in the White House.
It took the House a historic 15 rounds of voting to select a speaker, McCarthy, the last time a new Congress was sworn in on Jan. 3 2023.