President-elect Trump on Thursday said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can remain in the leadership role if he is tough on spending, while Johnson is pivoting to plan B to fund the government ahead of Friday’s deadline to avert a shutdown.
“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,” Trump told Fox News Digital in an interview on Thursday morning.
Some GOP lawmakers have questioned their support for Johnson due to his handling of the end-of-year spending deal, which has thrown his grasp on his gavel into uncertain territory ahead of a critical Jan. 3 vote on who will hold the gavel. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) pledged to oppose Johnson on the House floor next month and a handful of other Republicans are not saying if they will support him.
Trump told Fox News Digital that he warned Republicans against supporting legislation that doesn’t tackle the debt limit, calling for those lawmakers to be primaried.
“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,” he said.
He posted the same warning on Truth Social on Wednesday.
The continuing resolution negotiated by Johnson was killed Wednesday when Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance called for Republicans to approve a clean stopgap funding bill paired with a hike to the debt ceiling. Vance then met with Johnson Wednesday evening to talk about the continuing resolution, which would have kept the government running through March.
Now, the government is set to shut down on Saturday, unless lawmakers can pass a funding measure through both chambers by then.
