After engineering this month’s unceremonious defenestration of the hapless Kevin McCarthy, some far-right Republicans openly dreamed of installing their hero Donald Trump to replace him as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Trump himself, meanwhile, suggested that only Jesus Christ was certain to be elected to the role – apparently overlooking practical concerns of presumed unavailability.
But in new speaker Mike Johnson, a previously little-known rightwinger from Louisiana, members of the Trump-loving Republican House Freedom Caucus have seen the speaker’s gavel go to a man who shows all the hallmarks of being their master’s voice – and reveals the iron grip Trump still has on the Republican party.
For the former US president’s part, he now has in a key congressional leadership role a figure who, if the past is any guide, willingly dances to his tune.
Time alone will tell if this continues to be the case. But having served in the House legal defence team against Trump’s first impeachment, Johnson, 51 – a vocal and extreme social conservative – then played a key role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden, his bona fides as a member of the Make America Great Movement’s seem unchallengeable.
Matt Gaetz, the hardline Florida congressman who was the vanquished McCarthy’s arch-nemesis, had little doubts, tweeting on Wednesday: “If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to Maga Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”
But it is the endorsement of Trump himself that has paved the way for the previously unheralded Johnson’s ascendancy – and gives a clue to his future conduct.
Trump opened the door to a Johnson speakership on Tuesday by viciously turning against the previous hopeful, Tom Emmer, a Republican whip and Minnesota congressman, who he tarred with the Republican in name only (Rino) appellation while warning darkly that voting him would be a “tragic mistake”.
“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA–MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Having seen his previous favored nominee, Jim Jordan, fail after three attempts at winning the endorsement of the house Republican conference, Trump realised that he may have finally found his man.
With the fatally smeared Emmer safely out of the running, Trump finally put his thumb on the scale.
“I am not going to make an Endorsement in this race, because I COULD NEVER GO AGAINST ANY OF THESE FINE AND VERY TALENTED MEN, all of whom have supported me, in both mind and spirit, from the very beginning of our GREAT 2016 Victory,” he posted on Wednesday.
But he added: “My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!”
With the deed done, the indicted former president was in celebratory mood, telling journalists outside a New York court on Wednesday where he is on trial over alleged business fraud that Johnson would be “a fantastic speaker”, adding that he had not heard “one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him.”
Whether this applies to outside the narrow confines of modern Republican politics is another question entirely.
Johnson is already on record as staunchly opposing further aid to Ukraine, a highly divisive faultline in the Republican party and a key priority of the Biden administration.
And with Congress facing a 17 November deadline to pass funding legislation that would avoid a damaging government shutdown – all amid calls for spending cutbacks by his far-right Republican allies – the hitherto obscure congressman from Louisiana might be about to become much better known, and more disliked.
