By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Related Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Home Speaker Mike Johnson, offering essential backing for the Louisiana Republican as he prepares for what is anticipated to be one other contentious speakership race this week.
Trump stated in a submit on his social media platform that Johnson “is a good, hard working, religious man” and stated he “will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN.”
“Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement,” he wrote.
Johnson thanked Trump for the endorsement and added, “The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work!”
The sign of help from Trump comes regardless of his frustration with a spending deal Johnson pushed by means of the Home days earlier than Christmas that failed to attain his central purpose of elevating the debt restrict.
However different Republicans have been much less forgiving. Far-right criticism over the spending ordeal has left Johnson’s continued management of the incoming GOP majority as soon as once more in jeopardy. Although a deal was reached, averting a vacation shutdown, Johnson needed to depend on Democrats to maintain the federal government working, highlighting the bounds of his affect and exposing cracks in his get together’s help.
The speaker’s first two funding plans collapsed as Trump, who doesn’t take the oath of workplace till Jan. 20, interceded with calls to droop or carry the federal government debt ceiling.
Johnson, who has labored laborious to remain near Trump over the past a number of months, satisfied the president-elect that he would meet his calls for to boost the debt restrict in 2025.
Trump had remained quiet about Johnson’s destiny earlier than a Jan. 3 management vote for over every week, at the same time as some Republicans signaled that they could not help Johnson for the function.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, one of many Republicans who opposed Kevin McCarthy’s preliminary bid for the speakership, stated in a press release Monday that “our next speaker must show courageous leadership to get our country back on track.”
The Indiana lawmaker went on to make a sequence of calls for for the following chief of the GOP majority, which included main spending reform. Rep. Andy Harris, who’s the chair of the ultra-conservative Home Freedom Caucus, had additionally indicated that Johnson’s future as speaker is just not assured earlier than the vacations.
In a Dec. 20 submit on X, Harris stated that Republicans haven’t finished sufficient to carry down “spending, deficits and inflation” since Trump’s electoral victory in November.
Due to this, Harris wrote, “I am now undecided on what House leadership should look like in the 119th Congress.”
Related Press author Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.
Initially Printed: December 30, 2024 at 10:51 AM EST
