Johnson sets meeting with Trump
Speaker facing MAGA pressure
House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to journey to Mar-aLago Friday to meet with former President Donald Trump as questions swirl about the Republican leader’s ability to hold on to his job.
As Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress continue to make his life miserable, Mr. Johnson says he will appear at a press conference alongside Mr. Trump to discuss “election integrity.”
The two leaders reportedly plan to express support for a bill that would ban non-citizens from voting in federal elections, despite the fact that they already are prohibited from doing so.
But Mr. Johnson will also likely be pleading behind closed doors for Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Johnson as a “sell out” to the MAGA cause and filed paperwork that could lead to a vote to oust him.
Mr. Trump reportedly has told advisers that he doesn’t want to see Mr. Johnson toppled. But he has done little to bolster his position, and MTG says Mr. Trump has not told her to end her crusade.
Mr. Johnson, who replaced Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker last year after a revolt by a handful of far rightwing lawmakers, is a longtime loyal supporter of Mr. 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.
Mr. Johnson was forced to work across the aisle to enlist Democratic support to avert a government shutdown by passing a spending bill that arch-conservatives 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 rightwing Republicans denounce it as a tool of the so-called deep state.
Mr. 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 Mr. Johnson.
A similar scenario could unfold over Ukraine aid.
Mr. Johnson has said he will find a way to bring to the House floor a bill to provide defense assistance to Ukraine as the embattled democracy seeks to fend off a Russian invasion.
Such a plan has the support of more than two-thirds of the House as a whole but only about half the Republicans.
Mr. Trump and Ms. Greene firmly oppose aid to Ukraine, leaving the plan in limbo and potentially allowing them to scuttleit, especially if Johnson is worried it could cost him his job. That could open the door for Russia to overrun an outgunned Ukraine, which would amount to a shocking geopolitical defeat for the U.S. and its Western allies.