Trump gives support to embattled Speaker of the House
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald Trump offered a political lifeline Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying the beleaguered GOP leader is doing a “very good job,” and tamping down the far-right forces led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene trying to oust him from office.
Trump and Johnson appeared side-by-side at the expresident’s Mar-a-Lago club, a rite of passage for the new
House leader as he positions himself, and his GOP majority, side-by-side with the indicted Republican Party leader ahead of of the November election.
“I stand with the speaker,” Trump said at an evening press conference at his private club.
Trump said he thinks Johnson, of Louisiana, is “doing a very good job – he's doing about as good as you’re going to do.”
“We’re getting along very well with the speaker — and I get along very well with Marjorie,” Trump said. But he also the efforts to oust the speaker “unfortunate,” saying there are “much bigger problems” right now.
The two appeared for a joint announcement on new legislation to require proof of citizenship for voting, but the trip itself is significant for both. Johnson needed Trump to temper hardline threats to evict him from office. And Trump benefits from the imprimatur of official Washington dashing to Florida to embrace his comeback bid for the White House and his tangled election lies.
In a background paper sent ahead of the meeting, they echoed language from the racist great replacement conspiracy theory to suggest that Biden and Democrats are engaging in what Trump's campaign called “a willful and brazen attempt to import millions of new voters.”
Johnson said the House Republicans would present new legislation requiring proof of citizenship for elections.