Trump 'doesn’t seem much concerned' with Mike Johnson's 'survival': report

Donald Trump is relying on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to make his policy dreams come true at the same time he is privately sniping at the House Republican while leaving him hanging trying to muscle a new budget deal into existence.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Johnson is bearing the "weight" of the president's expectations and, should he fail, he will receive no sympathy from the White House.

As the Journal's Molly Ball and Olivia Beavers wrote, "Though the Constitution envisions the House speaker as the head of a branch of government coequal to the executive, it is widely understood in Washington that Johnson serves at Trump’s pleasure. Recognizing this dynamic, Johnson has worked hard to ingratiate himself with the president."

ALSO READ: Elon Musk's DOGE boys think this is a video game as Trump plots his 2nd coup

Despite that, they wrote, "Trump doesn’t seem much concerned about Johnson’s political survival. He taunts Johnson regularly about the difficulties posed by his slim majority—difficulties Trump exacerbated by plucking House members to serve in his administration."

The House speaker has found his hands tied by Trump in multiple ways, with one sympathetic colleague, Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) lamenting, "He’s done a remarkable job, but he’s got a nearly impossible task."

The report notes that, should Johnson fail to deliver for the White House, "He could lose his post as ignominiously as his predecessor—and the GOP could see a repeat of Trump’s first term, when congressional dysfunction stifled his legislative agenda."

"We wasted those first two years of Donald Trump’s first term,” stated Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI). “If we don’t change that in his second term, then we didn’t learn anything and neither did he.”

You can read more here.