MAGA Mike insists he doesn’t factor in the threats of extremists to vacate the chair while he’s doing his job— even though Trump’s House henchman, Marjorie Traitor Greene, keeps loudly threatening his job and Trump seems to be on the verge of changing his name from MAGA Mike to RINO Mike. Johnson worked with the Democrats to keep the government open, while the MAGAts voted— as Trump demanded— to shut it down. It passed 314-108, with 207 Dems and 107 Republicans voting to keep the government funded and functioning.
Trump has reasserted control over Congress and he wants to call all the shots himself. Last night, Annie Karni reported how Trump torpedoed the border-Ukraine aid deal. She noted that Trump “is wielding a heavier hand than any time since leaving office over his party’s agenda in Congress. His vocal opposition to the emerging border compromise has all but killed the measure’s chances in a divided Congress as he puts his own hard-line immigration policies once again at the center of his presidential campaign… His ‘America First’ approach [that’s typical NY Times misnomer— it’s a Trump First approach, not an America First approach] to foreign policy already helped to sap GOP support for sending aid to Ukraine for its war against Russian aggression, placing the fate of that money in doubt. That led Republicans to demand a border crackdown in exchange for any further funding for Kyiv, a compromise that Trump has now repudiated. He frequently consults with the inexperienced Speaker Mike Johnson, weighing in on policy and politics. And his uncompromising approach has emboldened copycat politicians in Congress, like Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida, who are helping to drive an ongoing impasse over government spending. For a Congress that has struggled for more than a year to do the bare minimum of legislating, Trump’s dominance among Republicans is yet another drag on the institution’s ability to function in an election year when his name is likely to be on the ballot.”
On Thursday, Republican supporters of the border deal were livid at the notion that Trump could potentially tank their painstakingly negotiated deal from the campaign trail.
“I think we have to have people here who support Trump, who have endorsed President Trump, go to him and tell him what a compelling case this is for someone who is likely to be our next president of the United States,” said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina. “Don’t pretend that the policy isn’t strong. If you want to admit you’re just afraid to tell President Trump the truth, that’s fine.”
Tillis said that to condemn the Senate proposal as too weak meant that “either you aren’t paying attention or you aren’t telling the truth.”
Senator Christopher Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who has been playing a lead role in the negotiations, said Trump’s opposition to the deal should come as no surprise.
“That is the cold, hard reality of Donald Trump, who just sees the border as a political issue, not as a policy problem to solve,” Murphy said.
Last week, congressional leaders from both parties met with Biden at the White House to discuss the Uraine/border security deal. Julie Tsirkin and Scott Wong reported that during the meeting, Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee raised the issue of how the Democrats could save Johnson when Traitor Greene brings up her motion to vacate the chair. They wrote that “House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) turned to Himes, seated next to him, and thanked him for making the remarks.”
That was a pretty big deal— “the revelation that Himes broached the subject of rescuing Johnson in front of the speaker, the president and top congressional leaders from both parties suggests that Democrats are increasingly considering how they will respond if conservatives move to depose Johnson… Particularly after Johnson bucked his far-right members to prevent a shutdown earlier this month and has yet to fully close the door to a bipartisan deal on Ukraine aid and immigration policy changes.” For whatever reason, Tsirkin and Wong were unwilling to share with their readers that Trump is at the heart of the problem. Last time the extreme right decided to oust their speaker, the Democrats didn’t help. This time may be different. Many Democrats feel that if Johnson shepherds this thing through, they should protect his gavel.