Donald Trump Backs Speaker Mike Johnson, Looking to Quell Leadership Challenge

PALM BEACH, Fla.—Donald Trump threw his support behind House Speaker Mike Johnson, seeking to halt an attempt from within his own party to oust the Republican leader, who appeared with the former president here in a show of solidarity ahead of the presidential election.

During a roughly 30-minute press conference Friday designed to back the embattled speaker, Trump also said he would testify in his coming criminal trial involving a porn star, appeared open to some form of aid to Ukraine, said he opposes a national abortion ban and criticized one of the nation’s most powerful and controversial surveillance programs.

“It’s not an easy situation for any speaker. I think he’s doing a very good job, he’s doing about as good as you’re going to do,” Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said at his Mar-a-Lago resort here.

“I’m sure that Marjorie understands that,” Trump added of one of Johnson’s fiercest critics, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), calling her “a very good friend of mine.”

Last month, Greene filed a motion to oust Johnson after the speaker relied mostly on Democratic votes to pass a $1.2 trillion package of six spending bills that averted a partial government shutdown.

The New York case is one of four criminal cases Trump faces, including 88 felony counts across two different state courts and two federal districts.

“It’s very unfair that I am having a trial there,” Trump said of his Manhattan-based trial.

The image of Trump standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Johnson was designed to stamp out Greene’s challenge to his speakership, which Trump’s advisers view as an unnecessary distraction heading into the election. Trump is leading President Biden in six of seven battleground states, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll.

Greene didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Officially, Trump and Johnson were here to talk about border security and election issues, with the speaker highlighting a bill that would require people to show proof of citizenship to vote. Trump’s camp said afterward that Johnson had agreed to hold a “series of public committee hearings over the next two months” on election security.

In remarks before taking questions, Trump and Johnson outlined a litany of unsubstantiated, long-held GOP claims that Democrats are trying to recruit illegal immigrants to cast ballots.

“We cannot wait for widespread fraud to occur,” Johnson said.

He called it “common sense” to require states to confirm a potential voter’s citizenship as part of registration, saying the GOP legislation would close what he described as a loophole in existing federal laws. Federal laws already ban noncitizens from casting ballots in federal elections and require identification for voter registration.

“The bill is proposing federalizing elections and taking power away from states, all to solve a manufactured problem that doesn’t exist,” said David Becker, director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, focused on election administration. “It’s a made-up solution for a made-up problem.”

Trump broadly decried the situation at the southern border, proclaiming that, during his own presidency, the border was secure. “Our country is like a dumping ground and we’re going to have it stopped,” Trump said.

An unprecedented surge of migrants has entered the U.S. illegally under Biden. But Trump faced a similarly large surge of asylum seekers in 2019, when nearly one million migrants entered—mostly to claim asylum.

Asked if he would support Johnson moving forward with an aid package for Ukraine, Trump, who has been critical of such spending, didn’t object. “We’re thinking about making it in the form of a loan instead of just a gift,” he said, echoing a concept he previously floated. The idea has gained traction among Republicans in Washington and could give some of them cover to support more money for Ukraine.

Trump also seemed to back down from his adamant opposition to reauthorizing a controversial surveillance law, after the House passed a revised two-year version of the bill. Still, he said, “I’m not a big fan of FISA.”

Johnson, who rushed down to Florida shortly after the vote to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, appeared with Trump in an opulently decorated Mar-a-Lago space overlooking the club patio, with towering ceilings of coffered gold and a stone fireplace partially-encapsulated in pillars. Less than an hour before Johnson’s arrival, Trump strolled the patio in a white golf polo and khakis, stopping to chat with some of the members.

While Trump offered complimentary words toward Greene, her actions in Washington have brought disapproval from Trump’s team, who feel it would feed a public perception that Republicans can’t govern and take attention away from issues such as immigration and inflation.

“We don’t need any more reason to be polarized,” said one person close to Trump.

A Trump-Johnson meeting had already been scheduled for Friday, before Greene filed her motion to vacate on March 22, a person close to the speaker said. But then Johnson requested that Trump turn it into a showcase for the election issue and the need for stronger border security.

Trump thinks highly of Johnson, several people close to the president said, and feels responsible for getting him the job in October 2023. Shortly after that, Johnson endorsed Trump, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to do so at the time.

The Trump and Johnson political operations are close, and people on both sides have explored other ways to work together, including on cutting taxes and regulation, increasing domestic energy production and securing the border, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Democrats said Johnson’s pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago is the latest proof that his speakership is tenuous and dependent on Trump’s favor.

“Johnson will lose a whole contingent of his caucus if he doesn’t coordinate with the former president,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.). “They’ve gotta kiss the ring.”

Michelle Hackman contributed to this article.

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected], Lindsay Wise at [email protected] and Mariah Timms at [email protected]