Republicans picked Johnson as House speaker. But they also sent him a message. | Opinion
By reelecting Mike Johnson as speaker of the House on Friday after some voting drama, the House GOP's Freedom Caucus members acknowledged the political reality.
They don’t have an overwhelming mandate to do whatever they want or to exert retribution over whomever they please. Those most loyal to President-elect Donald Trump still need to work with mainstream conservatives in order to get results.
Despite staunch objections from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Johnson convinced the remainder of the Republican caucus that he could do the job.
That being said, a faction of the GOP remains likely to give the speaker trouble going into the 119th Congress and a second Trump presidency.
GOP's narrow majority will give Speaker Johnson headaches
The narrow Republican majority almost complicated a House speaker election for the second time.
While the Republicans won 220 seats in November over the Democrats' 215, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s resignation has already eaten into their majority. Reps. Elise Stefanik, from New York, and Mike Waltz, from Florida, are also expected to move to jobs within the Trump administration. Until vacancies are filled, Republicans cannot afford any defections.
Until then, lawmakers like Massie will be Johnson’s headache.
“Everything we do needs to set the Congress up for success and to deliver the Trump agenda for the American people,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said on X following the vote. “Speaker Johnson has not made that clear yet, so there are many members beyond the three who voted for someone else who have reservations.”
Those threats mean that Johnson’s victory could be short-lived and fully depend on the Freedom Caucus’ restraint in not ousting him. Despite making it harder to oust the speaker this time, the House GOP could quite easily be sent back into the turmoil of finding a new speaker, just as it was last term.
Freedom Caucus members, though disgruntled with Johnson, must recognize that ousting him would mean a bitter fight within the GOP over who the next speaker could be, and the outcome of such a battle is unlikely to be someone any more favorable to MAGA than Johnson.
MAGA's complaints with Johnson were marginal at best
The latest gripe that Trump loyalists have had with Johnson is his handling of the shutdown threat just before the new year. While Trump has endorsed Johnson for the speakership, some of his allies have not been so forgiving.
However, Johnson was put into an impossible dilemma as 2024 was coming to a close. Trump weighed in on the spending package after an agreement was on the table, just days before a potential government shutdown.
At that point, Republicans had no leverage, and Johnson was forced to negotiate with Democrats from a losing position.
One of these days, MAGA lawmakers will realize that their headache isn’t with House speakers being asked to complete impossible tasks but rather with Trump’s impossible demands.
The House GOP will be the more troublesome of the two legislative majorities, and Johnson's primary task as speaker will be to navigate a slim majority while keeping his job. Per usual, his primary adversary will be the troublemakers from within his party.
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