Facing a revolt from far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, House Speaker Mike Johnson traveled to Mar-a-Lago Friday to kiss the ring and solicit support from former President Donald Trump.
Standing in front of the Speaker during a press conference, Trump said Johnson is “doing a really good job under really tough circumstances,” adding, “I stand with the Speaker.”
For weeks, Johnson has been facing threats from Greene to push forward with a motion to oust him from the top House job over a potential deal on funding for Ukraine. Greene reportedly met with Johnson on Wednesday for about an hour, telling reporters after the meeting that she “got a lot of excuses” from the Speaker and that they “didn’t walk out with a deal.”
Trump said Friday that Greene’s push was “unfortunate.” “It’s not an easy situation for any speaker,” he said. I’m sure that Majorie understands that.” The former president also said he believes Greene, whom he described as a “very good friend … has a lot of respect for the Speaker.”
But the presumptive GOP nominee’s comments were not enough to get Greene to back off. “I support President Trump and am working as hard as possible to help him win in November and winning a Republican House and Senate majority,” she wrote Friday evening on X, formerly Twitter. “But I do not support Speaker Johnson.”
It’s unclear when Greene may decide to move forward with the motion, nor is it clear when exactly Johnson, who has delayed Ukraine aid for months, will move forward on a House bill. Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise said Thursday that Johnson has been in talks with the White House about a House funding package that would diverge from the $95 billion deal negotiated in the Senate to satisfy some demands from House Republicans.
Though Trump has long been critical of U.S. support for Ukraine, Friday represented somewhat of an uneasy rapprochement with Johnson on the issue of Ukraine aid. The former president said he was “thinking about making it in the form of a loan instead of just a gift”—an approach he’s taken of late to NATO spending.
In exchange for Trump’s endorsement, Johnson offered a full-throated defense of the GOP’s presumptive nominee’s efforts to sow doubt about U.S. elections, both past and future. With the press conference being billed as about “election integrity,” Johnson baselessly claimed that “potentially hundreds of thousands of votes” from undocumented migrants may be cast next November and vowed to push forward with a bill that would make anyone registering to vote provide proof of citizenship.
Speaking on behalf of the Biden Campaign, Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson preemptively called the press conference a “sham.” “Donald Trump and Mike Johnson don’t care about election integrity,” Johnson said. “They care only about helping Trump’s campaign of revenge and retribution to regain power at all costs.”