Trump stands by Mike Johnson at Mar-a-Lago despite challenges to House speakership

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) received public words of support from former President Donald Trump as he faces the threat of losing his speakership.

Johnson visited Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, on Friday, marking the first time the two men held a public event together since Johnson became speaker last year.

Hovering over the meeting was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a fervent Trump ally, who filed a motion to vacate, a first step to removing Johnson as speaker, on March 22.

The beleaguered speaker is governing with a slim majority, forcing him to depend on Democratic support to pass legislation. However, Trump gave Johnson public encouragement when asked about the brewing situation with Greene.

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“We’re getting along very well with the speaker, and I get along very well with Marjorie,” Trump said. “We have a speaker. He was voted in, and it was a complicated process, and I think … it’s not … an easy situation for any speaker. I think he’s doing a very good job.”

“He’s doing about as good as you’re going to do. And I’m sure that Marjorie understands that. She’s a very good friend of mine. And I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker,” Trump added.

In one notable example that led to Greene filing a motion to vacate, Johnson needed Democratic help in passing a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that funds the government for the rest of the year.

But unlike the previous successful attempt to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans remain wary of another display of chaos during an election year.

“I said with the speaker, we’ve had a very good relationship,” Trump also said in a move that will likely simmer down open attempts to oust Johnson.

The appearance with Trump will give Johnson credibility with hard-right members of his party, despite the former president’s attempts to undermine the House GOP from passing legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Trump had pressured Republicans to “kill” the measure. Yet, the bill passed in a 273-147 bipartisan vote on Friday afternoon, though not without drama.

During the press conference reiterated he’s “not a fan” of FISA.

Members of the House GOP tanked a procedural rule to move forward with reauthorizing the FISA legislation to the floor on Wednesday. An amendment that prohibits warrantless surveillance searches by the federal government failed after a 212-212 vote on Friday.

Johnson and Trump also officially unveiled actions the House GOP will take to curb election fraud ahead of the 2024 election.

“The House Republicans are introducing a bill that will require proof of citizenship to vote,” Johnson said. “It seems like common sense I’m sure all of us would agree, we only want U.S. citizens to vote in U.S. elections, but there are some Democrats who don’t want to do that.”

“Our bill also will require states to remove noncitizens from their existing voter rolls. That’s a big problem too,” Johnson later said. “And it will provide access to databases from the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to help the states administer this.”

The legislation faces no chance of being signed into law as Democrats control the Senate and White House. Federal law already bans foreign nationals from voting in federal elections.

Trump also slammed the rising immigration crisis at the southern border during the press conference.

“I would like to demand that our border be closed because we have millions of people coming into our country,” Trump said. “Millions and millions of people are pouring in, at levels that nobody’s reporting nobody’s going to talk about.”

He also called on President Joe Biden to shut the border down. “Our country is like a dumping ground, and we’re going to have it stopped. And Biden should do it immediately,” he added. “He should close the border immediately. He needs no legislation.”

The former president has long maintained that the 2020 election was “rigged” after losing the election to Biden, while Johnson has not gone as far as Trump in claiming widespread fraud following the election.

Ahead of the Friday event, the Biden campaign released a statement from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who served as the Jan. 6 committee chairman.

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“By virtually all measures, the 2020 election was among the most secure in our nation’s history. Donald Trump lost to President Biden by over 7 million votes — fair and square,” Thompson said. “But Donald Trump still can’t admit it. The sham event at Trump’s country club should remind the American people of a dangerous truth: Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and a danger to our Constitution.”

“Donald Trump and Mike Johnson don’t care about election integrity — they care only about helping Trump’s campaign of revenge and retribution to regain power at all costs,” he added.