Three Republicans initially voted for another candidate in the first round of voting, denying Mr Johnson the required majority. The 215 Democrats united behind their candidate Hakeem Jeffries.
However, the vote was not canceled, after which Johnson and his supporters began talks with the dissidents. Ultimately, two of them changed their votes to Johnson, allowing him to be elected.
Mr Johnson took office in October 2023, after his colleagues ousted Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker of the House, from his post.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the third most powerful person in the United States after the president and his vice president.
Trump congratulates his ally
Donald Trump congratulated his ally Mike Johnson on Friday for his re-election to the US House of Representatives, despite initial opposition from elected officials in his own camp.
“Mike will be a great speaker, and our country will benefit from it. Americans have waited four years for common sense, strength, and leadership. They will have it now, and America will be great again than before!” declared the president-elect on his Truth Social platform.
Threat of “shutdown”: the United States avoids a budgetary paralysis before Christmas
US House Speaker promises ‘drastic’ budget cuts
Republican Mike Johnson, just re-elected to the US House of Representatives, promised Friday to adopt “drastic cuts” in the United States budget.
“We are going to make drastic cuts in the size and scope of the state,” he declared from the chamber of the lower house of Congress, adding that the Republicans would “return power to the people”.
“Full support”
After the president-elect, billionaire Elon Musk – who has become one of the most important voices in Washington since his thunderous alliance with Donald Trump – had also lent his voice in favor of the current “speaker”.
“I think the same thing. You have my full support,” he responded this week on his social network X to Mike Johnson, who welcomed a message from Donald Trump in his favor.
The support of the two influential billionaires was not enough for this first vote; a failure which represents a new snub in Congress for Donald Trump.
Will House Speaker Mike Johnson be Donald Trump’s next target?
Just before Christmas, the president-elect did not obtain the inclusion in a budgetary text of a measure on the debt ceiling which he nevertheless demanded loud and clear.
The initial rejection of Mike Johnson’s bid for the perch provides a glimpse of the difficulties Donald Trump will have getting his agenda through Congress in the first months of his presidency.
Internal struggles
Traditionally a formality, the election of the “speaker” has experienced unusual upheavals in the last two years, notably with the unprecedented dismissal a year ago of the previous president of the lower house, Kevin McCarthy.
A fall orchestrated by the most right-wing fringe in Congress, which already accused Kevin McCarthy of having increased the deficit by giving in too much to the Democrats.
The impeachment gave rise to a 22-day psychodrama and exposed the internal struggles of the Republican camp to broad daylight.
Less than three weeks before his return to the White House, Donald Trump therefore wishes to avoid this type of scenario, especially since without “speaker”, the House of Representatives would find itself unable to act, and therefore to certify his victory in the presidential election, during a session scheduled for Monday.
