President Donald Trump has apparently publicly belittled Speaker Mike Johnson for how much he has to lean on him to get members in line — claiming that he has “two jobs” and is actually the one running the House, according to a report.
Trump made the remarks during at least one meeting with Johnson and a handful of other lawmakers in the Oval Office, sources told NOTUS.
“I have two jobs: being president and being speaker,” Trump said during the meeting.
Johnson, who can only lose two Republican votes on any partisan legislation, has repeatedly turned to Trump to make phone calls to hold outs in order to get votes to go the way he wants, according to the report.
“He’s the one getting everyone in line,” a House Republican told the outlet.
Trump’s grip on the role of House Speaker apparently goes beyond his work to secure votes. On several occasions, Johnson has directed GOP members seeking to bring legislation to the floor to get approval from Trump first, according to the report.
“It is a total shirking of responsibilities to the White House,” a House Republican told the outlet. “Everything has to be preordained and pre-blessed, and there’s very little that we’re able to have our own will on. We should be empowered to pass our own priorities, not just follow what that mandate of the day is.”
While it seemed many GOP members wanted to complain, at least one told the outlet that it would make sense for the White House to have input on the legislative agenda, given the GOP’s slim majority and the need to pass legislation.
“Given that the President has to sign the bills that Congress passes for them to become law, it stands to reason that the White House would have input into and help pass the legislative agenda that Republican House Members and the President ran on and that 77.3 million Americans voted for,” the aide said.
The speaker’s efforts to sway votes has upset members of his own party before, even prompting some Republicans to sign onto Democratic-led discharge petitions, meaning they have gotten enough signatures to move off the floor. As a result, GOP leadership has been forced to pull resolutions at the last minute in instances where they didn’t have enough votes to kill them.
“The speaker has felt like, since they’re from the same party, there’s not a need for checks and balances. I disagree,” retiring Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon NOTUS. “I think we could have provided more feedback on tariffs, Ukraine, and other things, like the ballroom.”
In a statement, an anonymous senior White House official told the outlet: “Ultimately the speaker is the speaker, and he’s done a phenomenal job with the narrowest majority in nearly a century in the House. He’s got an extraordinary relationship with the administration. He’s trusted, he’s authoritative, and I think the president’s spoken publicly any number of times about how much he appreciates and admires the speaker. So, I don’t think there’s anything unusual about close collaboration when the majority is this tight.”
The White House did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
A spokesperson for Johnson said in a statement that while “there is always a healthy tension between the legislative and executive branches in our constitutional structure, the point of unified government is that voters expect the party in charge to work efficiently and effectively together to solve the nation’s problems.”
“Speaker Johnson is proud to have a strong and productive working relationship with the President that has delivered countless positive legislative results for the American people, in spite of the razor-thin margin of the House majority — including lower taxes, secure borders, reduced crime, a return to the American energy dominance, massive reductions in burdensome regulations, fraud, waste and abuse, and so much more,” the spokesperson said.
