Mike Johnson managed to get re-elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives this Friday, despite the support of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Republican Mike Johnson was re-elected this Friday, January 3, to the US House of Representatives, after benefiting from the support of Donald Trump. Initially, he did not succeed in getting re-elected since three Republican elected officials ultimately gave their vote to another candidate during this first ballot.
The outgoing “speaker” initially faced opposition from several elected officials in his camp, who criticized him for too many budgetary concessions to the Democrats, but managed to be re-elected in the first round of voting.
Donald Trump congratulated him on his re-election, via a message on his social networks. “Mike will be a great speaker and our country will be the beneficiary. The American people have waited four years for common sense, strength and leadership,” he wrote.
This election of the President of the House of Representatives was a test of the president-elect’s influence in Congress, because the future tenant of the White House had given his support to Mike Johnson.
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.
Support provided by Elon Musk
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.
“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.
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, 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.
Just before Christmas, President-elect Donald Trump did not obtain the inclusion in a budgetary text of a measure on the debt ceiling which he nevertheless demanded loud and clear.
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 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 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.
