Speaker Mike Johnson was sitting inside Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Day, talking legislative strategy with President-elect Donald Trump, when the conversation turned to the troublesome conservative hardliners who might trip up the Republican agenda — and one in particular, Rep. Chip Roy.
The Texas Republican had been a thorn in both men’s sides: He’d backed Trump’s rival Ron DeSantis in the presidential primaries, and he’d just revolted against a debt-ceiling hike Trump had publicly demanded. And Roy had made no secret of his desire for a new speaker, threatening to block Johnson’s Jan. 3 election — and potentially delay the certification of Trump’s victory just three days later.
Let’s call him now, Johnson proposed to Trump.
With Johnson, Vice President-elect JD Vance and various aides in the room for the call, Trump made clear that he wanted Roy to not only support his agenda but to back Johnson as well, according to three people granted anonymity to share details of the conversation.
When Roy complained about Trump coming after him on social media during the debt ceiling fight, Trump said he would back off — so long as Roy played nice himself.
“I need your vote here, Chip,” Trump told him, the people familiar with the conversation said. “You’ve got to be with me.”
The call was the beginning of the end for Johnson’s monthslong, up-and-down fight to keep his grasp on the speaker’s gavel. Two days later, Roy would grudgingly vote for Johnson, and Trump would make 11th-hour calls to two final holdouts, securing his victory.
After Johnson ended 2024 on shaky ground — having watched a year-end spending deal with Democrats blow up in his face, infuriating both House conservatives and Trump’s powerful sidekick, Elon Musk — he now had the most powerful Republican in modern American history literally in his corner, sitting together in the “Winter White House.”
But Friday’s triumph was also a reminder of the fragility of Johnson’s power — and that he owes it entirely to Trump.
According to interviews with three people close to Trump, the reason the returning president went to bat for Johnson had less to do with personal affinity and more to do with safeguarding his administration’s agenda. Over the past week, Trump had become convinced that no one else could get the necessary votes in a timely fashion, said the Trump confidants granted anonymity to describe private conversations about the speaker race.
“This is not just a leadership battle. It’s a presidential succession battle,” said one Trump insider, who noted the havoc any delay would wreak on the Jan. 6 certification of Trump’s victory.
“The president wants people to unify, play on the same team and fall in behind the agenda that got him elected, retained the House and put the Senate majority in power,” argued another. “Why blow a once in a generation opportunity on sideshows?”
All the insiders said that Trump has come to appreciate the difficult situation Johnson is in as the leader of a historically slim majority. But he is also growing tired of excuses, one said: “The president’s expectation by supporting him for speaker is that he’s going to deliver the agenda.”
A long courtship
Johnson’s efforts to win — and retain — Trump’s favor went back months before Friday’s vote. After the folksy, religious Louisianan emerged in October 2023 to fill the leadership vacuum created by Kevin McCarthy’s removal as speaker, he had work to do to convince Trump and his closest allies that he was a MAGA loyalist at heart.
The early impressions were not great. After Johnson moved in early 2024 to support tens of billions of dollars in new Ukraine aid, bowing to the wishes of a bipartisan House majority over the America-first right, Trump allies questioned his judgment — not only about his decision but also how he went about it.
“Was it really necessary for Mike Johnson to give a quote saying, ‘I’m willing to lose my speakership over Ukraine funding’?” one said, summarizing Johnson’s public pronouncements. “Did you think through the long-term damage that single quote has probably caused Mike Johnson with the base?”
But Johnson kept in close touch with Trump throughout the early months of his speakership, making no secret of his frequent communications, and heaped praise on him publicly. During the Ukraine funding debate, Johnson asked Trump how he could make passage less painful, resulting in a decision to convert some of the funding into a loan; Trump never publicly weighed in against the bill, smoothing its passage.
As the general election drew closer, Johnson’s bookish style gradually grew more Trumpian. He began pushing back harder on reporters, performing for the audience of one. During an October “Face the Nation” appearance, he surreptitiously filmed himself during the pre-taped interview — then accused the network of selectively cutting it up. Trump loved it.
Meanwhile, Johnson was tooling his legislative tactics to cater to Trump — and educate him about the realities of managing the House. During a September funding fight, Johnson bowed to Trump’s wishes and attached legislation barring illegal immigrants from voting to a must-pass spending stopgap.
When the package failed and Trump asked him why, Johnson passed him a list of the members who had tanked the idea: nine of his own MAGA allies. An irate Trump then called up those holdouts and flipped them to yes — only to watch moderates on the other side of the House GOP balk at the possibility of a government shutdown.
“You’ve got a hard job — I don’t envy you, Mike,” Trump told Johnson at the time.
As one Johnson ally put it, “Trump and his people got to see and say, ‘Wait a minute, it’s not Mike Johnson that’s the problem here — it’s others.”
With another funding cliff looming last month, Johnson tried running the same strategy: putting up a bill mirroring Trump’s demands for a debt-ceiling increase. This time, the president-elect wasn’t sympathetic when 38 Republicans broke ranks; he was upset and embarrassed and mulled whether he might be better off kicking Johnson to the curb.
‘There’s no one else’
While Trump stewed at Mar-a-Lago, Johnson’s allies went to work on his behalf. They included former Speaker Newt Gingrich, a close friend of Johnson’s who is also close with Trump, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who gave Johnson a public show of support.
The most persuasive arguments inside Trump’s inner circle — and particularly to incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles — didn’t concern Johnson’s personality or legislative acumen. It was that no other obvious candidate for speaker could win the votes.
“The reality is: there’s no one else,” one of the insiders said. “There wasn’t another option here.”
As Roy and others gauged whether Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — a MAGA favorite — could possibly get the near-unanimous GOP support he would need, Trump became convinced he couldn’t: “Jordan’s great,” he told people recently while lamenting “he has like 35 people that will never vote for the guy,” according to a person present.
After letting the pre-holiday tensions settle, and with his critics circling, Johnson called Trump Monday to personally ask for a fresh endorsement. Trump quickly posted a message on Truth Social stressing the need for unity: “LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN.”
Once Trump made his wishes clear — and that he was willing to lean in for him — Johnson’s detractors never stood a chance.
Emboldened by Trump’s public backing, Johnson drew a hard line on negotiations. No plum committee assignments or office space. No concessions on scheduling or major process changes. Roy’s bid to become Rules Committee chair went nowhere.
On the floor Friday, Johnson’s team smelled victory when it seemed that many of the holdouts were hesitating, refusing to vote when their names were called. All, including Roy, voted for Johnson when the clerks came back around.
But three GOP hard-liners had voted for someone else. And Johnson needed to flip two in order to claim a first-ballot victory. Trump, again, rode to the rescue.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) got Trump on the phone and handed it to Rep. Ralph Norman, a fellow South Carolinian who had voted for Jordan.
“Look, Ralph, I like Jim Jordan, too — I love him more than you do,” Trump told him, calling from the golf course. “Mike is the only one who can win. Get in a room and work it out.”
The lobbying campaign came to a head just off the House floor. Norman and Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), another holdout, listened as Johnson promised to give conservatives a say in big-ticket bills (something they’d have regardless, given the tight majority) while Mace argued that Trump has a right to pick the speaker of his choice.
Still on speakerphone, Trump boasted about his “landslide victory” and griped about how Republicans splinter while Democrats always stick together. “We got one opportunity,” he said. “Mike’s my guy.”
Moments later, they marched back onto the floor and switched their votes to Johnson.
