Trump insists he 'gets along very well' with Speaker Johnson as his 'very good friend' Marjorie Taylor Greene tries to oust him over disagreements on Ukraine aid and controversial 'spy tool' FISA

• ‘He’s doing really good job under tough circumstances,’ the former president said at Mar-a-Lago
• The presser focused on election legislation to keep illegal immigrants from voting. It’s already against the law for them to vote 

Donald Trump said he ‘stands’ with Mike Johnson and he’s done a ‘very good job’ as the pair appeared at a joint news conference amid threats of another motion to oust the speaker.

Johnson’s future is in a precarious position after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump ally, launched a motion to vacate him last month.

She has not called it to the floor, leaving the threat hanging over Johnson’s head.

‘He’s doing really good job under tough circumstances,’ the former president said at Mar-a-Lago when asked if he supports top ally MTG’s efforts to boot Johnson.

‘He’s doing about as good as you’re going to do. And I’m sure that Marjorie understands that and she’s a very good friend of mine. And I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker,’ Trump claimed.

Donald Trump said he ‘stands’ with Mike Johnson and he’s done a ‘very good job’ as the pair appeared at a joint news conference amid threats of another motion to oust the speaker

Trump also said he was ‘looking at’ Johnson’s expected Ukraine proposal, putting him at odds with Greene and other House hardliners who are outright opposed to any more aid in the fight against Russia.

‘We’re looking at it right now and we’re talking about it,’ he told reporters.

‘We’re thinking about making it in the form of a loan instead of just gift — we keep handing out gifts of billions and billions of dollars.’

Johnson’s appearance next to Trump comes after he helped tank the speaker’s efforts to pass renewal of a spy tool earlier this week.

The bill finally passed Friday morning. Johnson made an agreement withTrump and his allies to renew it only for two years instead of five, so they could hash out more reforms under a potential Trump administration.

‘KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! DJT,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social ahead of a failed rule vote to reauthorize Section 702 of FISA earlier this week.

Another part of the law that is not up for reauthorization – Title 1 – was used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 when he was suspected of communications with the Russians. Trump reauthorized FISA in 2018.

Trump at the news conference on Friday had a more subdued opposition to the surveillance tool.

‘I’m not a big fan of FISA. But I told everybody I said do what you want. They put a lot of checks and balances on and I guess it’s down to two years now so that it would come due in the early part of my administration.’

Section 702 specifically allows the U.S. government to surveil foreign nationals with suspected terror ties who are not on U.S. soil, even if the party on the other side of such communications is a U.S. national in America.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chip Roy are introducing the new bill in Congress, the SAVE Act

Johnson rankled hardliners on Friday by being the final vote to kill an amendment that would have required intelligence officers to get a warrant to look at communications that involve anyone on U.S. soil.

That way if Trump wins the election, Congress can more thoroughly reform FISA under his presidency.

The presser is focused on election legislation to keep illegal immigrants from voting. It’s already against the law for them to vote.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chip Roy are introducing the new bill in Congress, the SAVE Act.

Roy, R-Texas, notably was not at Mar-a-Lago for the news conference. He and Trump are not friendly; Roy endorsed Ron DeSantis for president over him.

The bill would aim to close any loopholes that allow people to register to vote without proof of US citizenship or photo ID, require all 50 states to remove any unlawful immigrants from their voter rolls, add penalties of up to five years in prison for election officials who register non-citizens to vote and require proof of citizenship for those who vote overseas.

‘It seems like commonsense all of us would agree,’ Johnson said at the news conference.

‘There are some Democrats who don’t want to do that. We believe that one of their designs. One of the reasons for this open border, which everybody asks about all around the country, why would they allow the chaos, why the violence? Because they want to turn these people into voters.’

Penalties for non-citizen immigrants who are caught voting include deportation or prison time, and they often steer clear of giving out personal information anyways for fear or being caught by immigration authorities.

It is possible to vote illegally as an undocumented immigrant, though.

Most voting ballots require some kind of proof of identity to register to vote, such as a driver’s license. Not all of those proofs of ID require citizenship.

In 2016 during Trump’s first campaign when he first began making claims about undocumented immigrants voting, the liberal Brennan Center for Justice examined 23.5 million votes in 42 jurisdictions for evidence of illegal immigrant voting and found 30 such migrant votes.

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