[ad_1]
House Speaker Mike Johnson may not have a substantial majority in Congress, but his job resembles his Republican predecessor in at least one way. His duties include the difficult task of managing Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Johnson is scheduled to visit Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida on Friday to participate in what the president calls a “major announcement on election integrity.” No further details were disclosed.
The two men had planned to meet for a political meeting, two people familiar with the plan said, but Mr. Johnson’s team was working on joint public appearances on topics that Mr. Trump cares deeply about. He suggested that he appear on the show.
For Mr. Johnson, it will be an opportunity to rub shoulders with Mr. Trump at a volatile time for Mr. Trump’s speeches. Despite facing threats, Mr. Trump is attempting to corral a deeply divided majority in the minority over legislative policies that many Americans oppose. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican and ally of President Trump, has been ousted. To complicate matters further, former president and Republican presidential candidate Trump is complicit in undermining that policy.
Still, Republicans generally think being physically close to Trump is a good thing and politically beneficial.
“It’s about Mr. Trump hugging Mr. Johnson,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Friday’s joint appearance. “This is President Trump saying, ‘He’s the chairman, I’m his friend, we’re in this together.'” That’s pretty important to him. He just has to endure. ”
Trump considers Johnson, who defended him in two impeachment trials and played a key role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a friend, according to people close to Trump. That’s what it means. He likes the Louisiana Republicans, and he likes them even more for their loyalty. (He particularly appreciated Mr. Johnson’s early support as chairman, something his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, always opposed.) The two sides have met regularly, and Mr. Trump has agreed to some of the congressional support that Mr. Johnson has lobbied for.
Still, even if this is what a hug looks like, it’s not clear that it’s much better than other hugs.
Earlier this week, Trump opposed a bill introduced by Johnson to extend expired warrantless surveillance laws that national security officials say are essential to combating terrorism and gathering intelligence. Mr Trump urged MPs to “kill” the law underpinning the plan, and ultra-conservatives in the House banded together to block the plan from being considered in the full House, an embarrassing defeat for Mr Johnson. It became.
The speaker was scheduled to try again to pass the bill through the House on Friday, just before boarding a plane for an audience with Trump.
The former president also said it would be “stupid” for the US to send aid to Ukraine, even though Mr Johnson had made it clear that introducing an aid bill to Ukraine was a top priority. He vehemently condemned doing so. Infusion of American military aid into Kiev.
This dynamic means that even if they present a united front at Mar-a-Lago, the two will be at odds on many issues that may be asked. Such is life with Trump. And for Republicans, it’s always been that way.
For a time after first arriving at the White House in 2017, Trump deferred to Republican leaders on Capitol Hill on legislative efforts such as repealing Obamacare and seeking tax cuts. Former House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who had refused to campaign for Mr. Trump, benefited from the fact that the new president had a personal interest in the success of common Republican policies.
Still, managing the relationship required some hand-wringing and hand-wringing over who would finally have Trump’s ear. In 2018, for example, Trump threatened to veto a huge spending bill approved by Congress. Mr. Ryan needed to be persuaded to sign.
“At the fire drill, we had to send five or six people to get him back,” said Brendan Buck, Ryan’s top adviser. “You’re always going to be fighting the last person you talked to, your emotional whims, what he read, etc. It’s a constant battle that you always have to fight.”
That same year, Mr. Trump, apparently after watching a Fox News program, tweeted a criticism of his break with the administration and this week nearly killed the surveillance bill he introduced. “Everyone called him, the national security adviser rushed in, people rushed to the White House,” Buck recalled. In the end, Trump resigned after 90 minutes.
But Trump is currently not very involved in the Republican agenda in Congress. It’s not his. And there is no national security apparatus around him that could help align and keep him on a trajectory more aligned with the party leadership in Congress.
As he settled into the White House, Mr. Trump also began to follow his own advice more and rely less on congressional leaders for direction. He had no interest in taking Mr. Ryan’s advice to try to avoid the government shutdown at the end of 2018, for example.
Mr. McCarthy spent years building a relationship with Mr. Trump, to the point where he categorized his favorite Starburst flavor as his preference for curry. He visited the former president at Mar-a-Lago to defuse the conflict after the Capitol was stormed by a mob on January 6, 2021.
Mr. McCarthy had an up-and-down relationship with Mr. Trump during his brief tenure as chairman. Although he succeeded in mobilizing some of Trump’s supporters during the 2022 midterm elections, his biggest victory may have been silencing the former president during negotiations with the White House over the debt ceiling. Trump waited until the agreement was signed before criticizing it.
Mr. McCarthy benefited primarily from timing. Mr. McCarthy was not yet the presumptive Republican nominee during his tenure and was not very involved in Washington’s agenda.
Mr Johnson may have the worst of both worlds. Since Trump is not president, he does not have a shared interest in the Republican chair’s success in Congress, but at this stage in the presidential campaign he is sufficiently aligned to potentially complicate things. . Whatever he tries to do. Trump continues to have enough influence over Republicans on Capitol Hill that his opposition alone could be enough to defeat the bill outright, but Johnson strengthens the relationship between the two. It didn’t take that long to do it.
“Mr. Johnson speaks harder than anyone since probably the beginning of the Civil War,” Gingrich said. “His main goal must be to unite the establishment for an election in which Mr. Trump increases Republican turnout.”
People close to Mr. Trump say Mr. Trump highly values Mr. Johnson’s political acumen and has at times withheld his support. Mr. Johnson heavily lobbied to support Rep. Mike Bost, Republican of Illinois, against competitive challenger Darren Bailey, who is running an active MAGA campaign. Officials said it was difficult for Trump to endorse him, but he ultimately did so at Johnson’s urging.
Greene said she would not backtrack on her criticism of Johnson or stop threatening to oust him, even though Trump publicly backed her.
“That doesn’t bother me,” she said of Trump hosting an event with Johnson. Of the speaker, she added, “Right now he doesn’t have my support.”
[ad_2]
Source link
