Speaker Mike Johnson had a troublesome week. He’s going through a revolt from one of the conservative members of his caucus that might price him his job. The prospect of offering further assist to Ukraine continues to fulfill opposition. And it took three tries for the Home to resume a warrantless surveillance invoice.
Then, on Friday, he flew to Florida, the place the person who has contributed to a lot of his challenges threw him a vital lifeline in his hour of want.
“I stand with the speaker,” former President Donald J. Trump instructed reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his personal membership and residence in Palm Seaside, Fla., as Mr. Johnson stood behind him and nodded alongside.
It was a message the speaker wanted at a tenuous second in his management, when he faces the menace from one among Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies, Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, of a movement to oust him.
It isn’t clear how far Mr. Trump’s endorsement will go. The previous president wields outstanding affect on Home Republicans in the case of stymieing laws he opposes, however his assist was not sufficient to maintain Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, from a five-day, 15-round ordeal to safe the speakership within the first place.
Mr. Johnson oversees a fractious and skinny majority within the Home, a actuality Mr. Trump acknowledged when requested about Ms. Greene’s menace to push Mr. Johnson from his place.
“He’s doing a extremely good job beneath actually powerful circumstances,” mentioned Mr. Trump, who has helped undermine Mr. Johnson’s legislative agenda by voicing opposition to a few of his efforts.
He referred to as the specter of a transfer to oust Mr. Johnson “unlucky,” including “This isn’t a simple state of affairs for any speaker,” And he mentioned: “I’m certain that Majorie understands that.”
Even in gentle of Mr. Trump’s remarks, there seems to be little political draw back for Ms. Greene to observe by means of on her menace to oust Mr. Johnson if he brings an assist bundle for Ukraine to the ground.
Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly railed in opposition to offering extra assist to Ukraine, didn’t totally again Mr. Johnson’s effort to offer further U.S. army help to the nation because it continues to combat in opposition to Russia’s invading forces.
However he moderated his stance on Friday, saying that the 2 had mentioned the problem and that he believed they could discover widespread floor in providing assist “within the type of a mortgage,” an thought the previous president has pushed for months.
Home Republicans have a slim majority that leaves little room for dissent if Mr. Johnson needs to advance legislative priorities. However the get together stays deeply divided, with many on its proper fringe attacking Mr. Johnson’s efforts to search out compromise.
“The Lord Jesus himself couldn’t handle this convention,” Consultant Troy Nehls, Republican of Texas, mentioned on CNN this week. “You simply can’t do it.”
In a social media submit after Friday’s information convention, Ms. Greene signaled that Mr. Trump’s high-profile present of assist had not modified her view of the speaker. After voicing her continued loyalty to the previous president, she mentioned, “However I don’t assist Speaker Johnson.”
Mr. Johnson, for his half, supplied on Friday a high-profile backing of Mr. Trump’s allegations of voter fraud, giving them public assist and pushing a proposal to deal with two points central to Mr. Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign: border safety and repeatedly debunked claims of election fraud.
Since his first presidential marketing campaign, Mr. Trump has claimed with out proof that Democrats are permitting or encouraging migrants to cross the border illegally as a way to register them to vote.
It’s already unlawful for people who find themselves not residents to vote in federal elections. Truth checkers have discovered that it occurs not often, typically by mistake, and nowhere close to the extent that Mr. Trump has advised, corresponding to when he claimed that thousands and thousands of immigrants who are usually not residents voted in 2016.
However Mr. Johnson repeated Mr. Trump’s claims, vowing to push a invoice that may require that anybody registering to vote in a federal election show their citizenship, and require states to take away noncitizens from their voter rolls. Mr. Johnson was not clear on how such a invoice would possibly implement these necessities.
Stoking fears that undocumented immigrants try to control U.S. elections is a handy means for Mr. Trump to grab on the migrant disaster whereas persevering with to sow doubt amongst his supporters concerning the safety of the nation’s elections.
In a press release launched by the Biden marketing campaign, Consultant Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, preemptively labeled the announcement a “sham” and criticized Mr. Trump for repeating his election lies.
“Donald Trump and Mike Johnson don’t care about election integrity,” Mr. Thompson mentioned. “They care solely about serving to Trump’s marketing campaign of revenge and retribution to regain energy in any respect prices.”
Mr. Johnson performed a vital function in supporting Mr. Trump’s false declare that he received in 2020, recruiting Home Republicans to signal a authorized transient that supported a lawsuit searching for to overturn the election outcomes. He repeated claims about voter fraud in interviews, and he offered Republicans with arguments that some used to object to certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
Effectively forward of Election Day this November, Mr. Trump — who faces prison prices associated to his efforts to overturn the 2020 race — has already tried to sow doubt concerning the 2024 election. He routinely insists at his marketing campaign rallies that Democrats can’t presumably win in November with out dishonest and has extra lately urged his supporters to prove in droves to make sure that his vote whole is “too huge to rig.”
Republicans in key battleground states have additionally since 2020 pushed for elevated restrictions on voting, together with legal guidelines requiring identification at polling locations and extra limits on mail-in voting and early voting, practices which have tended to favor Democrats in current cycles.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked each practices, arguing continuously that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and that elections have to be restricted to “one-day voting.” Different distinguished Republicans, notably in battleground states, have mentioned that the get together must encourage the apply as a way to chip away at Democrats’ benefits.
Annie Karni contributed reporting from Washington.
