Mike Johnson Won’t ‘Be Good At’ Enacting Trump Agenda, Republican Warns

Republican Representative Thomas Massie said Tuesday that House Speaker Mike Johnson will not be able to enact President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

Newsweek reached out to Johnson’s spokesperson via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Massie’s criticism came days after Trump offered a full-throated endorsement of Johnson, calling him a “good, hard-working, religious man.”

Johnson’s role as House speaker will be up for a vote after the new Congress is sworn in, and the vote will come just days after Johnson faced sharp blowback from his colleagues over a federal funding fight that nearly resulted in a government shutdown.

Rep. Thomas Massie at the U.S. Capitol on December 18. Massie said on X that House Speaker Mike Johnson won’t be able to carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

CQ Roll Call via AP Images

What To Know

“Johnson is not up for this task,” Massie, a Kentucky Republican, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He made the comment in response to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who criticized “contrarian” House Republicans for being “in effect allies of the Democrats.”

“I do not understand what the CONTRARIAN house republicans think they will gain by opposing Speaker Mike Johnson,” Gingrich wrote on X. “They have no one who can get more votes.”

Gingrich added that “they risk crippling President Trump’s electoral win on January 6. They are in effect allies of the Democrats. I challenge them to explain what their end game is other than noise.”

“Challenge accepted,” Massie replied. “First let me note that the ‘vote for Mike’ camp is not trying to make the case that Mike Johnson is endowed with the qualities necessary to lead our conference. Even you have limited yourself here to procedural justifications for his speakership rather than telling us why he is a good or capable leader.”

“Even if Mike’s entire goal is to do everything Trump wants without debate or question (which I would argue is not healthy for the institution of Congress), he’s not going to be good at it,” Massie continued. “He already demonstrated this month that he won’t tell the President what is achievable and what is not achievable in the House, and he lacks the situational awareness himself to know what can pass and what cannot.”

Massie said that he and other Republicans who oppose Johnson hope to gain “a competent Speaker who has the will and ability to capitalize on this once in a decade opportunity.”

“Johnson is not up for this task,” he wrote.

The Kentucky lawmaker also characterized Gingrich’s claim that “no one can get more votes” as “somewhat ridiculous.”

“He was only electable the first time because he hadn’t held any type of leadership position, nor had he ever fought for anything, so no one disliked him and everyone was tired of voting. He won by being the least objectionable candidate, and he no longer possesses that title,” Massie wrote.

What People Are Saying

Trump told reporters he thinks Johnson will remain House speaker: “No one else can get the votes.”

Representative Thomas Massie, on X: “I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan. We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”

Former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, on X: “Trump endorsing Johnson is ‘art of the deal’ level practicality. We could never have held up McCarthy two years ago for concessions if a Trump certification hung in the balance. Now, it does. We were able to hold up McCarthy because Republican voters weren’t all that eager to see us getting back to being Biden’s bitch (which Kevin ultimately did anyway). The resistance to @SpeakerJohnson is now futile. Let’s work to make him the best version of himself (which was more like the 2023 vintage of Mike).”