After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> proclaimed to reporters that President-elect Donald Trump was \u201ccertainly happy about this outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n

Amid the chaos in Washington, I was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called up other confidants afterward. This much became clear to me: Not only is Trump unhappy with the funding deal, he\u2019s unhappy with Johnson, too.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s unhappy that he didn\u2019t get the debt ceiling hike he made clear he wanted. He felt blindsided by the initial deal Johnson struck with Democrats. And, in the end, he was unimpressed with the entire chaotic process, which left the incoming administration questioning whether Johnson is capable of managing an even thinner majority next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is upset \u2014 he wanted the debt ceiling dealt with,\u201d said one Trump insider, who like others was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Trump and Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past couple weeks, we\u2019ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one thinks he\u2019s strong. No one says, \u2018Damn, this guy\u2019s a fighter,\u2019\u201d went another reaction I got to Johnson\u2019s bid to keep the speaker\u2019s gavel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how Johnson survives,\u201d said a fourth.<\/p>\n

Johnson and his allies have good points to make in his defense \u2014 that the president had unrealistic expectations of what was possible, that Joe Biden is still president and Democrats control the Senate, thus limiting how much could be achieved.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to Johnson staying as speaker, all that matters is how he\u2019s perceived in Trump\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is just another instance where Trump toys with one of his minions just watch him squirm \u2014 just ask Kevin McCarthy, Johnson’s predecessor, what that’s like. But Republicans tell me there\u2019s no way Johnson will win the gavel again without Trump not only endorsing him but actively whipping for him. <\/p>\n

And, as of this weekend, it\u2019s an open question at Mar-a-Lago about whether Trump will lift a finger to help him. Trump is sitting back and watching the coverage, I\u2019m told, mulling whether it’s worth it to defenestrate another speaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wanted to bury Mike Johnson, everyone knows he could \u2014 and he hasn’t,\u201d said one of the previously quoted Trump confidants. \u201cWhile the president thinks there could have been a better deal, he also hasn\u2019t pulled the ripcord. Where we end up in a week or two is largely undecided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside Trump\u2019s exasperation<\/h4>\n
Frustration with Johnson started well before this week\u2019s meltdown on Blue Light News. In several conversations with Johnson after the election \u2014 as reported previously in Playbook<\/a> \u2014 Trump mentioned his interest in quickly raising the debt ceiling to clean the slate for 2025.<\/p>\n
One of the Trump insiders called the borrowing limit a \u201ccleaver hanging over his head in the middle of the year\u201d \u2014 something that would give Democrats major leverage to oppose the spending cuts he is seeking, given how thoroughly Republican loathe voting to raise it: \u201cHe brings it up in every conversation \u2014 he says the debt ceiling is going to be the thing that [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck [Schumer] uses\u201d to obstruct his agenda.<\/p>\n
The way Hill Republicans see it, Trump never explicitly endorsed attaching the debt ceiling bill to the year-end spending package until two days before the shutdown deadline. If Trump \u2014 never shy about what he wants \u2014 was that serious about raising the borrowing limit in the lame duck, they argue, wouldn\u2019t he have been tweeting about it for weeks, publicly demanding lawmakers act?<\/p>\n
Another Trump official bristled at that suggestion, arguing that it\u2019s not Trump\u2019s job to get into the minutiae of legislative strategy: \u201cHe said, \u2018Deal with the debt ceiling prior to me coming into office.\u2019 \u2026 Let\u2019s not play semantics.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation escalated on Tuesday when Johnson unveiled his deal with Democrats, which included a host of measures that had little to do with keeping the government open.<\/p>\n
Multiple Republicans on Blue Light News said the speaker\u2019s team let the incoming administration know exactly what would be in the bill \u2014 including pay raises for members, transferring ownership of Washington\u2019s RFK Stadium and restricting investments in China \u2014 though they acknowledged that didn\u2019t necessarily mean Trump himself knew.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they should have taken it to the top sooner,\u201d one Hill aide said. \u201cThere was a lot of CYA after Elon [Musk] began picking apart, line by line, on the bill,\u201d another one added, suggesting Trump\u2019s team didn\u2019t fully convey what was happening to their boss.<\/p>\n
Trump insiders firmly pushed back, arguing that while Johnson\u2019s team may have provided some \u201cbullet points\u201d and toplines, they didn\u2019t get a full picture of the deal in advance. (\u201cBullshit,\u201d the second Hill aide said.)<\/p>\n
Things only deteriorated further from there. After the initial deal collapsed and Johnson agreed to add the debt ceiling to a Plan B proposal, Trump officials claim that Johnson assured them the votes would be there to get it over the finish line. Trump decided at that point to endorse the bill<\/a> and pressure Republicans to fall in line.<\/p>\n
When that deal failed spectacularly, with 38 Republicans voting against it, Trump\u2019s team was floored \u2014 and felt Johnson had made Trump look foolish for weighing in. \u201cYou can’t bring the president a deal that you say you have the votes for if you don’t have the votes,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n
Johnson could have recovered some favor with the president had he taken one final step, they say: Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance<\/a> both made clear they\u2019d be fine allowing a holiday-season shutdown to try to force Democrats into swallowing a debt ceiling deal.<\/p>\n
Johnson considered it, people close to the speaker said, but he never committed. Like most senior Republicans, Johnson knew that denying Christmastime paychecks to military members or FEMA workers delivering hurricane relief would be an impossible fight to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cA shutdown would have bogged Republicans down, taking away our ability to hit the ground running and risked delaying Trump\u2019s swearing in,\u201d the previously quoted aide said.<\/p>\n
Instead, Johnson scrambled to assemble a new, slimmer CR deal that also didn\u2019t include Trump\u2019s debt ceiling demand. Trump decided to stay out of it, and it passed 366-34 \u2014 with the help of 196 Democrats.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s fate in the balance<\/h4>\n
Johnson has been underestimated throughout his 13 months in office \u2014 not only by his avowed foes, but by other senior Republicans who have been predicting his downfall for months. Each time, with Trump\u2019s support, Johnson was able to survive.<\/p>\n
This time feels different. And it couldn\u2019t come at a worse moment, with less than two weeks until the critical Jan. 3 speakership vote.<\/p>\n
Those close to Trump don\u2019t expect the president-elect to outright call for Johnson to go, though that could still happen. What seems more likely is that, should Trump decide he\u2019d prefer a different partner leading the House, he simply lets Johnson flail as he struggles to land 218 votes.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s best hope rests with the calendar and the clock. Trump, I\u2019m told, is aware that an ugly, protracted speakership battle could stall momentum for his agenda, leaving the House in a state of paralysis \u2014 just as it did after Kevin McCarthy\u2019s ouster last year.<\/p>\n
Two senior GOP aides said this weekend that without an elected speaker, the Jan. 6 certification of Trump\u2019s victory will be delayed. What\u2019s more, Trump is eager to start moving on his legislative agenda as soon as he\u2019s inaugurated, hoping to sign a border bill within 30 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president recognizes the difficulty of electing a speaker right now \u2014 any speaker \u2014 is not easy,\u201d one of the Trump confidants said.<\/p>\n
So Trump has decided to keep his powder dry as things play out \u2014 intentionally so, I\u2019m told. While some in the greater MAGAsphere are fuming about Johnson, key figures such as Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a> (R-Texas) are weighing in<\/a> on his behalf.<\/p>\n
The speaker\u2019s fate could ultimately come down to Trump\u2019s gut. As the president-elect told Fox News<\/a> amid all the drama, Johnson will \u201ceasily remain speaker\u201d if he acts \u201cdecisively and tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reality is this: Trump now sees him as waffling and weak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker Mike Johnson proclaimed to reporters that President-elect Donald Trump was \u201ccertainly happy about this outcome.\u201d Not by a long shot. Amid the chaos in Washington, I was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called […]<\/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-4025","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\/4025","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=4025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}