New York Daily News

With Johnson’s House speaker job at risk, he’ll visit Don in Fla.

- BY DAVE GOLDINER

House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to journey to Mar-a-Lago Friday to meet with former President Donald Trump as questions swirl about the Republican leader’s ability to hold on to his job.

As Trump’s allies in Congress continue to make his life miserable, Johnson says he will appear at a press conference alongside Trump to discuss “election integrity.”

The two leaders reportedly plan to express support for a bill that would ban noncitizen­s from voting in federal elections, despite the fact that they already are prohibited from doing so.

But Johnson will also likely be pleading behind closed doors for Trump’s help in getting his supporters in Congress into line on a string of issues like renewing a crucial FBI surveillan­ce tool and desperatel­y needed aid for Ukraine.

It’s unclear whether Johnson will get what he wants from the former president or what political price he might need to pay in exchange.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia lawmaker and staunch Trump loyalist, has bitterly denounced Johnson as a “sellout” to the MAGA cause and filed paperwork that could lead to a vote to oust him.

Trump reportedly has told advisers that he doesn’t want to see Johnson toppled. But he has done little to bolster his position, and MTG says Trump has not told her to end her crusade.

Johnson, who replaced Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker last year after a revolt by a handful of far right-wing lawmakers, is a longtime loyal supporter of Trump.

He has firmly backed the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and says he agrees with MAGA lawmakers on most topics.

But he also recognizes that being speaker requires making compromise­s with moderate Republican­s and even Democrats, especially because the GOP holds a razor-thin majority of only five votes.

Johnson was forced to work across the aisle to enlist Democratic support to avert a government shutdown by passing a spending bill that archconser­vatives bitterly opposed.

Now the speaker is seeking to reauthoriz­e the Foreign Intelligen­ce Surveillan­ce Act, a measure that law enforcemen­t officials call an invaluable tool in fighting terrorism and uncovering domestic terror plots before they happen.

The bill has broad bipartisan support, but some right-wing Republican­s denounce it as a tool of the so-called deep state.

Trump falsely blames FISA for being the basis of the FBI probe into his 2016 campaign’s ties with Russia. He urged lawmakers to reject it in a post on his social media site.

A remarkable 19 Republican­s voted to derail the bill on a rarely seen procedural measure, a harsh rebuke to Johnson.

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