Republican Mike Johnson was re-elected to the US House of Representatives on Friday, after benefiting from the support of Donald Trump.
The president of the lower house of Congress initially seemed to have lost the first vote, when three Republican elected officials cast their votes for another candidate.
But the hemicycle witnessed a twist when two of them finally changed their voices to support the outgoing “speaker”.
AFP
Just re-elected Mike Johnson has promised to adopt “drastic cuts” in the United States budget.
“We are going to make drastic cuts in the size and scope of government,” he declared from the chamber of the lower house of Congress, adding that Republicans would “return power to the people.”
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The election was a test of Donald Trump’s influence in Congress, as the future president had given his outspoken support to Mike Johnson.
Wishing him “good luck” Friday in a message published in 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 100%.”
He congratulated his ally on his re-election, 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 even greater than before!” declared the president-elect on his Truth Social platform.
In view of 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.
“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.
He was ultimately the only one to oppose the “speaker”.
AFP
“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 enough to change the minds of a number of refractory elected officials.
But the reluctance towards the candidacy of Mike Johnson will have given an overview of the difficulties that Donald Trump will have in getting his program through Congress in the first months of his presidency, with a majority of only five votes in the lower house.
AFP
Internal struggles
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 dismissal 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 wanted to avoid this type of scenario, especially since without a “speaker”, the House of Representatives would have been unable to certify his victory in the presidential election during a session scheduled for Monday.
