Speaker Mike Johnson is closing in on Trump to save the GOP House majority

As Johnson travels the country trying to save Republicans’ House majority and his own job as speaker, he has become increasingly closely aligned with Trump, with a once-shaky relationship becoming increasingly mutually beneficial.

The speaker is counting on the former president for his own political survival in the chaotic House, but he is also positioning himself as Trump’s partner, ready to potentially challenge the election results and, if Trump wins back the White House, take the MAGA agenda to Congress. Trump said over the weekend that they had a “little secret” to victory, and Johnson, who supported the legal challenge that Trump lost the 2020 election, did not deny it.

With the presidency and control of Congress at stake, Johnson, who in many ways is the accidental speaker of the House after taking over after Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic far-right insurrection, is uniquely positioned to play a key role in both outcomes.

“We’ve been working all along on the premise that we have to make it ‘too big to be faked’ — and that’s not just a slogan,” Johnson told The Associated Press between weekend campaign stops in Ohio.

If Trump wins, and Johnson expects him to, “this will all be an afterthought.”

What if not?

“We’ll sort it out. We will follow all the way.”

It’s an extraordinary journey for Johnson, 52, a religious rights lawyer from Louisiana who was first elected with Trump in 2016 and is now second in line of succession to the presidency. Last week he celebrated his first year on the job before arriving in the Buckeye State, among the 230 cities in 40 states he has visited since taking over the gavel.

Hearing Johnson say it, Trump “is the head coach” and “I’ll be the quarterback” and together they are preparing to lead the game on an “ambitious” 100-day agenda with Republican senators – tax cuts, securing the US border and blowing out the torch with the feds – if they will manage to sweep away the White House and Congress.

While Johnson did not refer to the Heritage 2025 Project, he did describe a detailed proposal to push federal agencies out of Washington and rehire the federal workforce, pointing to the America First Policy Institute and other think tanks that have databases of potential new hires.

“We will be able to force the federal government to comply,” Johnson said near Akron.

Johnson said he and Trump talk about the plans all the time.

“He thinks seriously about his legacy,” Johnson said. “He thinks hard about what we can do.”

When the health care issue came up in Pennsylvania a few days later, the speaker said, “No Obamacare” — though he later clarified that he had not promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying it was “deeply entrenched” in the health care system.

Trump dominated Johnson’s campaign stops, even in his absence.

On Saturday night, Republican Derek Merrin is challenging the longtime Democratic Republican. Marcy HoodJohnson said the district, which Trump won in the last election, presents an opportunity for efforts to maintain — or grow — the GOP’s slim majority in the House.

Standing under fluorescent lights at the Lucas County Republican Party offices, Johnson told Trump what a great candidate Merrin would be – “straight from the center cast,” he joked, impersonating the former president – to the audience’s delight.

Calling himself a “wartime orator” because of the challenges at home and abroad, Johnson presents himself as a cheerful and reserved figure, even as he presents the election in the most stark terms.

“Right now we’re not fighting a battle anymore, it’s between R and D, it’s something deeper. We are currently fighting a battle between two completely different visions,” he said.

“What we are protecting are, above all, the Judeo-Christian foundations of our country,” he said, sparking applause.

“Amen!” – someone shouted from the crowd.

Asked later about the role his faith plays in governing in a time of rising Christian nationalism, he shrugged, finding the analysis sad and saying he was no different from what the founders envisioned for the country’s leaders.

“I think it’s comforting to know,” he said, that leaders “believe they answer to a power higher than just our civic institutions, right?”

The next morning, Sunday, Johnson found himself primarily at the brewery – the afternoon tailgate had to be rescheduled so he could make it to New York to speak at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden.

Instead of brewing coffee, water flowed as he stomped Republican candidate Kevin Coughlin, who is trying to unseat Democratic Republican Emilia Sykes in the Akron area. Joining the Republican Party would give Johnson some relief in a turbulent chamber with its slim, difficult-to-govern majorities.

Johnson, who is not a large man, joked that he was four inches taller, but “this job blew me away.”

It is likely, but by no means certain, that Johnson will have enough support from within his ranks to keep his job if House Republicans retain their majority. There are dissidents, especially from the far right.

But in the end, Trump may have the last word.