Congress

Trump Shows House Republicans the New Template for Governing

Trump ultimately pushed the speaker vote in Johnson’s direction. Now, the question is whether he can do that for legislation.

Donald Trump AP-24286739154824

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Beauty Society in North Las Vegas. John Locher/AP

By Riley Rogerson, Reese Gorman, Katherine Swartz and Oriana González

January 03, 2025 07:27 PM

For a couple of hours Friday afternoon, it seemed like Mike Johnson’s speakership was in grave danger.

Although Johnson had convinced several conservative holdouts to back his bid, Freedom Caucus members Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self joined Rep. Thomas Massie to deny Johnson the gavel — and about a half dozen other Freedom Caucus members signaled they may be a problem on subsequent ballots, after initially not voting when it was their turn.

And then Donald Trump called.