Donald Trump and Mike Johnson need each other desperately—so one can coast to a peaceful transfer of presidential power, and the other remain House speaker.
But heading into a fateful House floor vote on Friday, it wasn’t at all clear that Trump could save Johnson’s gavel despite endorsing the Louisiana Republican and urging potential GOP rebels to follow his lead.
The more Johnson leaned on Trump Thursday to save his speakership at the 11th hour, the angrier free-thinking conservatives became. At least 15 to 20 GOP lawmakers remained uncommitted.
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Rep. Thomas Massie was more direct in his opposition, telling his former colleague Matt Gaetz during the right-wing firebrand’s debut show on One America News Network Thursday night that he wouldn’t cast a vote for Johnson if fellow Republicans tortured him.
“You can pull all my fingernails out,” Massie said. “You can shove bamboo up in them. You can start cutting off my fingers. I am not voting Mike Johnson tomorrow. And you can take that to the bank.”
Several other holdouts told the Daily Beast Johnson likely won’t win on the first ballot scheduled for noon on Friday.
But then again, Republicans are worn out from two years of internecine chaos; and pickings are slim to none.
“I think the point is there is no alternative,” a source close to the House GOP leadership told the Daily Beast Thursday evening. “Delaying the speaker is just delaying the Trump agenda.”
“There are two options,” another senior House Republican told the Daily Beast. Either Trump gets angry and retaliates against the House Republicans who don’t follow his orders “or he dumps Johnson. And the first seems more likely.”
The GOP source noted that a delay in installing a speaker is a significant setback not just on passing bills on the floor, but getting committees staffed and organized.
Johnson told Fox News Thursday evening that he was confident he had the 218 votes necessary to easily maintain his leadership title.
Earlier in the day, he told Fox News that fractious Republicans “cannot afford a palace drama” as they did in January 2023 with the vote–a-rama to elect short-lived speaker Kevin McCarthy.
In the GOP’s paper-thin majority, Johnson cannot afford to lose the support of more than two House Republicans, with Democrats vowing unified opposition to Johnson and hoping, instead, to install their own top leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Only one Republican, Massie, has publicly vowed to oppose Johnson’s bid.
Trump on Thursday spoke to at least one potential defector, Rep. Chip Roy—urging him to rally behind Johnson and, in turn, ensure a smooth inauguration for himself. Roy, however, remained uncommitted as of Thursday evening.
Roy is among several rabble-rousing fiscal budget hawks who are furious at Johnson over what they view as his embrace of wasteful government spending. The Texas Republican began his rant against Trump and others before Christmas, and hasn’t let up since.
“I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous,” Roy said last month after Trump demanded House Republicans support raising the debt limit.
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