In a serious turn of events, President-elect Donald Trump played a pivotal role in securing the author’s article for Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson. Trump stepped in from the golf course on Friday evening to personally persuade two Republican politicians, Representatives Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, to assist Johnson, according to CNN.
The intervention proved crucial because Johnson eventually won the 218 votes needed to keep the speaker’s position and move a just divided chamber forward into the new year. The result was uncertain until the very last second, which highlights the political crisis and the impact Trump continues to have over the Republican Party, despite the established record indicating that Johnson won the necessary votes on the first attempt.
According to two people with knowledge of the discussion, Trump urged lawmakers to promote party unity, warning that voters might not be as patient with the dysfunction that may result from Republicans failing to support a single speaker, according to CNN.
Despite Republicans having control of both the White House and Congress, this event highlighted the important difficulties President-elect Donald Trump would experience in governing over the next two decades.
Trump will need near-unanimous support from his group or bipartisan cooperation in order to implement the broad alterations he promised voters. With slim majority in the House and Senate. Without achieving this, he might struggle to carry out his goals.
If Reps. Mike Waltz of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York are confirmed as the administration’s national security adviser and as the country’s adviser, respectively, this may further lower the Democratic majority in the House.
House Republicans have had to overcome these obstacles since regaining control of the majority in 2022, which adds to these difficulties and helps him keep party unity and accomplish his policy objectives.
” Governing is noisy sometimes,” said Republican Representative Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, according to CNN. ” And I think we’ve proven that not only now, but over the last two decades. But we’ll find that”.
Trump has already been subject to the limitations of his political control. In a cash voting that almost led to a government shutdown, he attempted but was unsuccessful in convincing House Republicans to raise the nation’s saving cap.
Trump’s influence within his group has faced many failures. His supporters were unable to influence the choice of the following Senate majority leader, which was South Dakota Sen John Thune, a former adversary of the approaching leader.
Also, Trump don’t encourage Florida Gov Ron DeSantis to appoint his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to the Senate seats now held by Marco Rubio, whom Trump has selected as secretary of state. According to fierce criticism from Senate Republicans, Trump even decided not to assign former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.
However, gaining Mike Johnson’s defeat marked an important first check of Trump’s ability to navigate a closely divided chamber, where personal lawmakers hold important power.
