CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump took the call as two Republican senators stood between Mike Johnson and the speaker’s gavel.
He spoke from the golf course Friday afternoon to Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, eventually convincing them to line up behind Mr. Johnson.
Louisiana Republicans retained the gavel with no extra votes, a victory that carried a narrowly divided chamber into the new year. Official records say he received the necessary 218 votes on the first try, but the drama took a far less certain turn and required President Trump’s intervention until the end. The first votes of the 119th Congress highlight the president-elect’s grip on the Republican Party and the challenge he faces in keeping the party united over the next two years in the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections. There is a possibility that the series could be threatened.
Trump has argued that the Republican Party needs to work as a team, and voters will have little tolerance for the dysfunction that will result if the party fails to unite behind the speaker, two sources familiar with the pitch said. I warned you.
Self said of his conversation with Trump before switching his vote to Johnson: “The message was that he wants what everyone else wants, which is to get his agenda passed.” he said. “That was my message to him, Mr. President, we need a strong negotiating team. The message was clear.”
Rep. Andy Biggs, one of six hard-line conservatives who initially withdrew support for Johnson, told CNN after the vote that House leadership still has reservations, but that Trump’s support for Johnson remains strong. He said trust has shaken the Republican conference.
“We have concerns, but President Trump has said he wants to work with Mr. Johnson, and basically we took that into consideration,” the Arizona Republican said as he left the House floor.
Asked if he thought Johnson would have survived without Trump’s support, Biggs said: “Not really.” I think that was important. ”
Mr Johnson himself emphasized that Mr Trump’s endorsement announced on Monday was a “huge factor” in his campaign, saying: “His voice and influence are extraordinary.” Trump had originally planned to announce his support on New Year’s Day, but the congressman suggested he should do so sooner, he told a local Baton Rouge radio station earlier this week. By Friday morning, Mr. Trump and his team had fully practical support for Mr. Johnson in winning votes. In addition to the president-elect speaking directly with defectors, one of President Trump’s closest Hill allies, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, spoke with Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, Susie, during the vote. – He was seen talking on the phone with Mr. Wiles.
President Trump has been clear all week that a prolonged fight would erode confidence in the Republican takeover of Washington and possibly end up with an inexperienced leader in charge of steering policy in the House. President Trump has indicated he would personally lobby Johnson’s skeptics, a step he has been reluctant to take in previous skirmishes among House Republican leaders.
Still, the episode was yet another reminder that President Trump faces an uphill battle in the next two years of his reign, even though Republicans control the White House and Congress.
Mr. Trump, who holds slim majorities in the House and Senate, needs near-unanimous support from his party or even bipartisan support. Otherwise, there is a risk that Mr. Trump will not be able to deliver the sweeping changes that he has promised to deliver to voters on his own terms. If the Senate confirms Rep. Mike Walz (Florida) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (New York) to join the administration as National Security Adviser and Ambassador to the United Nations, respectively, the House approval rating would be even higher. It will increase.
The difficulties ahead can be seen in part by how House Republicans have struggled since regaining the majority in 2022.
“Governing is sometimes confusing,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice told CNN. “And I think we’ve proven that not just today, but over the last two years. But we’ll get there.”
Trump is already facing limits to his influence within the party. Before the holidays, he unsuccessfully pressured House Republicans to raise the nation’s borrowing limit during a budget vote that came dangerously close to shutting down the government.
His allies also failed to influence the vote to name the next Senate majority leader, which went to South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a former critic of the president-elect. Trump also failed to sway Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to nominate his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to the Senate seat currently occupied by Marco Rubio, the president-elect’s nominee for secretary of state. . And President Trump abandoned his plan to nominate former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general in the face of strong opposition from Senate Republicans.
But getting Mr. Johnson across the finish line is an early and significant test for Mr. Trump’s ability to navigate a closely divided chamber in which individual lawmakers are known to wield incredible power. It became.
“To be fair, it’s going to be a dangerous fight for this House Republican majority,” said former Rep. Patrick McHenry, who oversaw the last Republican speakership race for 22 days as speaker pro tempore. “But with President Donald Trump in office, that becomes possible, and (Johnson’s) speaking engagements become possible. And without Donald Trump, this vote might have turned out differently. I can’t.”
Ahead of the vote, Trump said he was confident Johnson would win, and there was no other candidate in mind for Johnson to replace him if the Louisiana Republican stumbled, according to CNN’s Kristen Holmes. I told Mr.
Mr. Johnson and his allies knew there was no realistic path for a Republican to be elected again. The only question was how many votes it would take to get there, and how much Trump himself would have to rely on skeptics.
Even as voting began, Republican leaders didn’t know exactly where the votes would go. Of the three senators who opposed Johnson on the floor, only Kentucky’s Thomas Massey had informed leadership of his intention to oppose Johnson. As one person said, Self, one of the first defectors, was entirely from the left.
And while Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson clashed over the spending bill in December, the president-elect and his team soon realized they needed to work together to shut down the rest of the Republican conference to avoid drama on Inauguration Day. I noticed that.
“He had a tremendous amount of influence,” said House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma. “Last time, we had 20 odd people who weren’t on the first ballot. We had three, and they got there.”
In addition to Trump’s influence, what was perhaps most notable about this entire ordeal was that he ignored the promises that chairs of both parties typically make, such as committee slots and promises to bring certain bills to the floor. Johnson would have claimed that he would get the votes.
Johnson said one way to win over Republican resistance was to reaffirm his promise to empower individual members in the 119th Congress, but without offering perks for Curry votes. Ta.
Asked about some hardliners’ calls for more powers for member states, he said: “I was already committed to that, so I just reaffirmed it.”
This will give Mr Johnson much more room to maneuver politically over the next two years in one of the narrowest House of Commons majorities in history. And that approach stands in stark contrast to his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, whose trade-offs with detractors ultimately helped derail his speaking career.
Mr. Johnson’s allies cheered his stance on standing up to Republican hardliners without alienating them.
“When you surrender to your hostage takers, in this case, you lose control of your political soul,” Frank Lucas, a longtime Oklahoma congressman, told CNN.
Leading members of the House of Commons Freedom Caucus spent days presenting Mr Johnson with demands including spending cuts and reforms to the spending process. And even after Mr. Johnson grabbed the gavel, a group of House Republicans released a letter outlining a list of demands they wanted Mr. Johnson to accept.
“Today, we steadfastly support President Trump and voted for Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House to ensure the timely certification of the electors,” the 11 Republicans wrote. “We took this action despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s performance over the past 15 months.”
However, the chair ultimately made no policy assurances or committee adjustments that would disrupt the rest of the meeting.
Mr. Johnson, for example, declined to consider Rep. Chip Roy of Texas as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee. That would have allowed Mr Johnson to amend the wording and dictate the content of debate on the floor.
Instead, Johnson issued a statement saying he would work with President Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency to create a task force on implementing spending reforms and issue public reports on agency audits. He also said he would “ask” the committee to take a deep look into the government agencies and individuals who “weaponized the government against the American people.”
And many conservatives had made clear they had no intention of passing President Trump’s policies in the House, and were looking forward to an opportunity to weigh in.
“We still have work to do. This is the beginning. This is not the end,” said Rep. Byron Donald of Florida. He initially received votes in the speaker’s election before being replaced by Mr Johnson.
CNN’s Kit Maher and Kristen Holmes contributed to this report.
