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\n

The collapse of Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s spending plan illustrates a painful lesson that other politicians have already learned: Absolute loyalty to Donald Trump is a one-way street.<\/p>\n

As the U.S. teeters on the edge of a government shutdown, bitterly divided Republicans are struggling to find a way forward and Johnson\u2019s hold on his job is in Trump\u2019s mercurial hands. <\/p>\n

Multiple House conservatives, as well as Trump advisers and other people close to the incoming president, indicate Johnson\u2019s hold on the speakership is far from stable just as Republicans are about to take control of the House, Senate and White House. One Trump adviser, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Johnson could salvage the relationship by \u201cdoing what Trump wants.\u201d But another said that Trump wasn\u2019t \u201cprotecting him\u201d and not to be fooled by the president-elect\u2019s publicly kind remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody challenges Johnson, you’re not going to get any pushback,\u201d said a Trump adviser, granted anonymity to speak frankly. \u201cWhich means he won\u2019t save him if he\u2019s in trouble.”<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s hold on power was already tenuous \u2014 with a slim House majority about to get even slimmer \u2014 but this week\u2019s battle over a bipartisan spending plan may have done irreparable damage to the congressman from Louisiana.<\/p>\n

Johnson appeared to be back on Trump\u2019s good side after totally deferring to the incoming president\u2019s demands on government spending \u2014 but his position is far from stable. After months of Johnson closely hugging the president-elect, Trump didn\u2019t hesitate to throw him under the proverbial bus Wednesday, tanking his funding plan and even making thinly veiled threats about his ability to remain speaker next year, saying If Mike Johnson gets \u201ctough\u201d and cuts out the Democratic wins they secured, then he would be safe.<\/p>\n

Republicans read into the unspoken counterpoint: Johnson was doomed if he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Johnson aggressively worked to win the president back over, huddling late into Wednesday night with Vice President-elect JD Vance to try to bridge the party\u2019s public divide on how to fund the government. As Johnson met with various factions of his own conference throughout the day, he and his team also circulated ideas with Trump and his allies to avoid another tanked spending bill.<\/p>\n

But Johnson and his team were actively talking to the incoming president and his team about the initial stopgap plan, raising questions about where the communication broke down. Some wondered if Elon Musk\u2019s public attacks altered that trajectory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a harsh reminder of how quickly Trump\u2019s loyalties can change and his willingness to turn on allies who had long cultivated his favor. Johnson knows that keeping Trump on his side is crucial for his political survival as speaker, and that\u2019s going to repeatedly color how Johnson can operate not only in the next couple of weeks, but also next year \u2014 if he can hold onto the gavel.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s allies were actively working to get support for the new stopgap funding bill; the White House legislative affairs team appeared to be involved in checking where members stood ahead of the vote on the revised spending plan, according to a member familiar with the efforts. And some of Trump\u2019s allies are explicitly warning Republicans not to oppose votes that the incoming president backs.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) said Thursday, after a conversation with Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), that he was offering \u201ccaution\u201d to Republicans who opposed the new stopgap, telling them Trump \u201cis the quarterback\u201d and \u201che called a play.\u201d Spartz voted against the bill.<\/p>\n

But Trump has now cooled on explicitly defending Johnson for speaker. As recently as this month, Trump was privately urging GOP members, according to one House Republican who spoke to him, to not do anything to distract from the start of his administration. This Republican took that to mean he didn\u2019t want a protracted speakership fight. But after the spending fiasco, some members wonder if Johnson still has the votes.<\/p>\n

One House Freedom Caucus member indicated Trump\u2019s backing is a determinative factor: \u201cI keep hearing more and more rumors of people that are jailbreak but at the end of the day, if Trump is backing him on Jan. 3, you really want to stand up against Trump?\u201d<\/p>\n

The House Freedom Caucus also huddled Thursday ahead of the vote on the Trump-backed spending bill, where a group of their members vented frustrations and also acknowledged that Trump is watching what happens, according to a person with knowledge of their private meeting. Many conservatives opposed the funding plan, and one who came out against it, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), got a primary threat from Trump earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Johnson has virtually no room for error on a speakership vote. Republicans are expected to have a 219-215 majority on Jan. 3 given Matt Gaetz\u2019s resignation, meaning Johnson will only be able to lose one of his GOP members and still get the 218 votes needed to be speaker.<\/p>\n

Johnson already has one strike against him: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has publicly stated he doesn\u2019t plan to back Johnson on the House floor and is hinting that other Republicans share his concerns. Another, Spartz, said earlier this week that she\u2019ll remain a Republican but not attend conference meetings, throwing into question if she would back Johnson.<\/p>\n

No one has publicly joined Massie so far, but Johnson is facing skepticism, and in some cases vocal criticism, from several others, who say they are undecided about how they will handle his speaker race election. Some members are publicly floating potential alternatives to Johnson, including Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), as conservatives raged against the initial funding plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s certainly got a lot of whipping to do,\u201d said one House conservative, granted anonymity to speak frankly.<\/p>\n

Still, some conservatives dismissed threats to Johnson\u2019s speakership as mere saber rattling.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone likes to question, and then no one likes to actually go out and publicly own it. So until someone steps up, I don’t even think that that’s a topic of discussion as of right now. The president supports him. I support him,\u201d said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a Freedom Caucus member, about Johnson\u2019s chances of remaining speaker.<\/p>\n

Asked if Trump backing the spending plan helps Johnson on Jan. 3, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said \u201ctime will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Mike,\u201d added Norman, who is opposing the latest spending plan. \u201c[But] no bill is better than a bad bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meridith McGraw, Meredith Lee Hill, Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The collapse of Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s spending plan illustrates a painful lesson that other politicians have already learned: Absolute loyalty to Donald Trump is a one-way street. As the U.S. teeters on the edge of a government shutdown, bitterly divided Republicans are struggling to find a way forward and Johnson\u2019s hold on his job is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}