Former President Donald Trump has delivered a an inconclusive but somewhat ominous message on Mike Johnson’s future as House speaker faces growing threats over his role.
After months of delay, Johnson has announced separate votes in the House this week on a foreign aid package that includes Ukraine despite fierce opposition from within the speaker’s party.
“Well, we’ll see what happens with that,” the former president told a Bloomberg reporter on Tuesday evening after being asked about a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, outside a Manhattan bodega during a presidential campaign trail visit—having just hours prior appeared in court at his criminal hush money trial.
Trump added: “I think he’s a very good person.” Newsweek has contacted the speaker’s office via email outside of regular hours.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Two Republican members of Congress have so far called on Johnson to hand over the gavel over his handling of the foreign aid bill.
The financial backing of foreign aid to Ukraine, in particular, has remained a divisive policy for Republicans, and Johnson will likely need support from the Democratic benches to push the legislation through.
His plan for the foreign aid package currently involves bringing separate votes for each section—Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region—and a fourth motion that would include such measures as seizing some Russian assets in U.S. banks and turning economic aid for Ukraine into loans.
The plan is to roughly carves up the Senate’s $95 billion aid package into separate votes before it is expected to be formed back into a single bill again with the president’s signature.
The Senate voted in favor of a $95 billion aid package in February that includes $60 billion of military aid to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel, $8 billion to Taiwan and around $10 billion in humanitarian assistance. It has remained sidelined by Johnson.
House Republicans believe that the speaker is negating their top priority of increasing more security at the border with Mexico. Johnson said border funding would not be considered relevant to the specific foreign aid bill.
Republican members of Congress have threatened to remove Johnson for his handling of the legislation, some six months after he was sworn in to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said he would support an effort to remove Johnson and called on him to resign. He joined Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia who filed a resolution to vacate the chair in March.
“I am not resigning,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “And it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs.”
“It is not helpful to the cause, it is not helpful to the country, it does not help the House Republicans advance our agenda—which is in the best interests of the American people.
“I am not concerned about this,” a defiant speaker added, batting away the calls for him to vacate the chair.
Donald Trump’s first criminal case, examining payment of hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, began on Monday. It is the first of four criminal cases facing the former president.
The presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee is charged with illegally falsifying business records to hide payments to Daniels during his 2016 White House campaign.
The former president, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, is alleged to have paid Daniels in exchange for her not speaking about an affair the pair allegedly had in 2006. Trump has denied an affair ever happened.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.