United States: The House speaker elections on Friday are mainly about Donald Trump, not Mike Johnson. Johnson is fighting to keep his job, but Trump has even more at stake. He wants to start his second term as president quickly and make big changes. This election could help him reach those goals.
If Trump does not deliver the goods where DUP is concerned with Johnson as its chief target, then he will seed fresh questions about his ability to properly steer the GOP troika of Houses and the White House.
The assembling, thus, marks the first day of Washington’s new Trump presidency with Republicans already planning to start delivering upon his return to the White House on the 20th of January.
As reported by the CNN, the nation’s new leaders intend to make drastic changes in immigration policy and large tax reductions by the difficult moves needed to counter Democrat threats of a filibuster in the Senate. Such steps will require cohesion and political sophistication for which the House GOP has not been well known.
Why Mike Johnson's bid to remain House speaker could be a struggle despite Trump's support https://t.co/Yx33Q4BQIE
— WPMT FOX43 (@fox43) January 3, 2025
But before House Republicans can do anything, they must vote for a speaker, a process that is nearly always strictly business, for Johnson, it is disastrously hazardous owing to his party’s slim majority of one that can afford to lose one vote if every member of the House is present.
The Louisiana Republican is actively stoking the narrative of how the GOP might once again miss the boat.
“I genuinely believe … we could be the most consequential Congress of the modern era, because I believe President Trump will be the most consequential president,” he told Fox Business on Thursday. This must repair all that needs repairs and that cannot start during day one and so we have no time to waste.
New York Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the potentially most endangered GOP members in the 2026 midterms, joined other voices to stress that a protracted vote was potentially disastrous. “From my view that would be the epitome of foolishness to engage in a speaker fight,” he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins last week.