Mike Johnson, an ally of Donald Trump, re-elected to the US Congress

The election was a test of Donald Trump's influence in Congress, as the president-elect had given his outspoken support to Mike Johnson.

Republican tenor Mike Johnson was re-elected, Friday, January 3, to the perch of the American House of Representatives, after having benefited from the key support of Donald Trump and despite the opposition of certain elected officials from his own camp.

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 dramatic turn of events when two of them finally changed their voices to support the outgoing “speaker”.

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 on his Truth Social network before the vote, the future president had described the elected representative from Louisiana as“good and very capable man, who is not far from having 100% support”. “A victory for Mike today will be a great victory for the Republican Party”insisted Donald Trump.

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 entered the debate to weigh in favor of the “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.

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 angry of them, the Republican Thomas Massie, in an interview with the conservative channel OAN. He was ultimately the only one to oppose the “speaker”.