Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) endorsed former president Donald Trump “wholeheartedly” during an interview on Tuesday morning.
“I’m all in for President Trump,” the newly elected House speaker said on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
The endorsement comes after Johnson’s own unlikely campaign to secure the Speaker’s gavel in late October, which the former president applauded, calling him “MAGA Mike Johnson.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Johnson had bad-mouthed Trump on Facebook in August 2015 before entering Congress. “The thing about Donald Trump is that he lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House,” Johnson, an evangelical Christian, wrote. “I am afraid he would break more things than he fixes. He is a hot head by nature, and that is a dangerous trait to have in a Commander in Chief.”
What would happen if Trump “decided to bomb another head of state merely disrespecting him?” Johnson mused. “I am only halfway kidding about this. I just don’t think he has the demeanor to be President.”
Trump’s debate performance, particularly when asked to explain why he had called a woman a “fat pig,” left Johnson disturbed at the time. “What bothered me most was watching the face of my exceptional 10 yr old son, Jack, at one point when he looked over at me with a sort of confused disappointment, as the leader of all polls boasted about calling a woman a ‘fat pig.’”
“Can you imagine the noble, selfless characters of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln or Reagan carrying on like Trump did last night?” Johnson reflected.
When asked about his earlier public comments, Johnson downplayed his initial character assessment of Trump, noting in a statement to the Times that he’d never personally met him and highlighting that “his style was very different than mine.”
“During his 2016 campaign, President Trump quickly won me and millions of my fellow Republicans over. When I got to know him personally shortly after we both arrived in Washington in 2017, I grew to appreciate the person that he is and the qualities about him that made him the extraordinary president that he was,” Johnson, who campaigned alongside Trump during his 2020 presidential bid, told the outlet. “Since we met, we have always had a very good and friendly relationship. The president and I enjoy working together, and I look forward to doing so again when he returns to the White House.”
Johnson’s backing of Trump marks a notable departure from the recently ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R., Calif.) unwillingness to clearly back the former president as recently as mid October.
“Well, I believe — well, you know what, because I’ve got a southern border wide open, I have war in the Middle East, I got things I’m focused on right now,” McCarthy told NBC’s Meet the Press anchor Kristen Welker. “I believe President Trump will be our nominee and, I believe, President Trump will get reelected. Think about what Biden has done,” the former speaker added, ducking the question of formally endorsing Trump. “[H]e has brought in chaos.”
Pressed by Welker to clarify whether he identifies as a “MAGA Republican,” the California representative answered: “You know what? I am a conservative Republican from the beginning to the end. And that’s what I’ve always been. You can try to phrase different names to people, but I’m proud of who I am.”
During the interview, Johnson also touched on his approach to averting the government shutdown that will commence Saturday in the absence of a deal to fund the government. Johnson has reportedly secured widespread support on both sides of the aisle for a so-called laddered stopgap spending bill that would have some funding run out on January 18 before the rest expires on February 2. The bill was envisioned as a way of avoiding passing a massive omnibus spending bill that includes funding for the whole of government, something Johnson has vocally opposed, while still averting the looming government shutdown.
Roughly two months out from the Iowa caucuses, Trump is leading the winnowing 2024 Republican primary field by a healthy polling margin.