On Sunday, the retirement of Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, will leave House Speaker Mike Johnson with the smallest House GOP majority in American history. For his part, Republican GOP front-runner Donald Trump knows weakness when he sees it, and the former president, fresh off a resounding victory in the Iowa caucuses, has made clear this week that he, not Johnson, will set the party’s 2024 congressional agenda.
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Wednesday. That’s a clear message from Trump that Johnson must not cut a compromise deal with Senate Democrats that would provide money for both US southern border security and Ukraine’s continuing ability to repel Russia’s invasion.
Beginning with next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Trump appears set to tighten his already strong election-year hold on the Republican Party, and Johnson’s negotiating leverage – with both Democrats and Trump – will only narrow. In the 10 months to Election Day, border security and Ukraine aid won’t be the only subjects on which Trump will call the legislative shots.