Wishing him “good luck” Friday in a message on his Truth Social network before the vote, the future president described the elected representative from Louisiana as “a good and very capable man, who is not far from having support in 100%.” “A victory for Mike today will be a great victory for the Republican Party,” insisted Donald Trump.
But given the small majority of Republicans in the lower house in this new legislature, the current “speaker” was well aware that he could not afford many defections in his camp. However, before the vote, several had expressed their reluctance, or even their frank “no”, towards the candidacy of the elected official, who had been a “speaker” for a little over a year.
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“You can cut off my fingers, I won’t vote for him”
“You can pull out all my nails, you can stick bamboo in them, you can start cutting off my fingers: I will not vote for Mike Johnson,” declared the most vocal of them, Republican Thomas Massie, in an interview with the conservative channel OAN.
Three Republican elected officials gave their vote to another candidate during the first ballot, then two withdrew and changed the vote.
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.
Crisps in Congress against the president-elect
Donald Trump’s relations with Congress, including his Republican troops, promise to be complex. 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.
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Internal struggles that last
Traditionally a formality, the election of the “speaker” has experienced unusual turmoil 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 a “speaker”, the House of Representatives would find itself unable to act, and therefore to certify his victory in the presidential election.
