Trump: Johnson Will Remain Speaker If He ‘Acts Decisively And Tough’ On Spending Bill

President-elect Donald Trump said during an interview on Thursday that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will “easily remain speaker” if he can get tough and gut Democrat policy initiatives from the stopgap bill that Congress is trying to pass to avert a government shutdown.

“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.

Trump’s remarks come after he and Elon Musk pressured Republican lawmakers into killing the 1,500-plus-page bill, noting that it was filled with wasteful spending priorities, such as giving lawmakers pay raises.

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Some Republicans have signaled publicly and privately that they believe Johnson will face competition for the speakership next month after the new Congress is sworn in.

Trump continued, “If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker.”

House Republican leaders were racing to piece together a new package on Thursday morning as a government shutdown would start going into effect on Saturday at 12:01 a.m.

“There’s a lot of moving parts,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told reporters. “We’re going to try to get it done today.”

Trump has said that a clean bill needs to be passed that only includes funding for disaster relief, aid for farmers, and raises the debt ceiling.

“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025,” Trump said on social media Wednesday evening. “The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”