Why Johnson talks Trump nonstop on the campaign trail

ARLINGTON, Texas — At a rally here in Arlington last weekend, Speaker Mike Johnson took a selfie video of himself and roughly 500 people cheering and sent it to Donald Trump. At a campaign event about 500 miles south in Harlingen, the speaker whipped out his famous Trump impression.

And before the former president hosted a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — returning to the scene of the July assassination attempt — Johnson tried to call him on the phone with a group of Republican lawmakers for moral support.

Trump later called Johnson back, when the speaker was talking with POLITICO in the back of an armored SUV weaving through the Dallas suburbs. Johnson paused mid-sentence and answered, gabbing like old friends with Trump on various topics, including the major football upset that happened earlier that day (Vanderbilt beating then-No. 1 Alabama) and a 2019 Louisiana State University game they attended together.

The former president was a constant presence as Johnson traveled across Texas for three campaign events in Dallas, Harlingen and Seguin — illustrating that the embattled speaker is tightly aligned with the GOP presidential candidate in the final month of the campaign. It serves a dual purpose for Johnson: helping him guide the political winds that will decide whether he keeps his House majority and getting him in Trump’s good graces right as Johnson might need his backing to remain speaker.

Of course, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy had a similarly close relationship with Trump, who even nicknamed him “My Kevin.” That didn’t save his speakership. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was alienated from Trump for years but has remained the GOP leader in his less volatile chamber.

Johnson and Trump are often in contact with each other; Johnson pops into Mar-a-Lago occasionally, meets with Trump at certain rallies and the two call and text each other frequently. Johnson recalled he was backstage with Trump at an event last week when the former president said he’s had his staff pack his schedule — because he doesn’t want to live with the regret that one more campaign stop would have been the difference between winning and losing the White House. Johnson said during an interview, which at times veered into fawning praise of Trump, that if more people saw that “authentic” side of Trump, “we’d win this thing in a landslide.”

“Kelly always says: ‘I wish everybody could see the Donald Trump that we know,’” Johnson told POLITICO, referring to his wife, who he also noted Trump likes “a lot.”

The fate of the GOP’s power next year largely relies on the two men. For Trump to take the White House and help Republicans win control of Congress, it’s essential to moderate the former president’s worst instincts, an at-times difficult feat that Johnson has managed in some cases. And House Republicans also need many of the more than a dozen GOP members running in districts that Trump lost in the 2020 election — some of whom have sought distance from the polarizing former president — to secure reelection in order to keep the majority.

Meanwhile, the speaker is touring the country at a breakneck pace, aware that winning a GOP majority will also have direct implications on both his legacy and his ability to keep his job. Whether Trump supports his bid will be another major factor.

Fundraising by fire

Keeping House control also depends on Johnson’s fundraising ability, and this moment marks a huge test. When he first ran for Congress, in 2016, he raised only $1.2 million for the entire election cycle.

Now, he’s a speaker traversing the whole map and trying to protect dozens of members in tough seats, traveling to 64 cities and 24 states this month alone. He’s trying to compete with Democrats’ record fundraising and the cash hauls of his predecessor, who was known for his fundraising prowess. Even with a huge war chest last cycle, McCarthy achieved only a thin House majority.

“It's been a paradigm shift for me, because I'm more of a principles and policy guy — the politics, I always left that to everybody else and my team,” Johnson said. “But obviously, in this role, it is a big part of the speaker's responsibility as leader of the party.”

Johnson said he thinks he’s performed strongly on fundraising, despite his lack of experience. The super PAC he inherited from McCarthy announced on Tuesday a record haul for the third quarter of a presidential campaign cycle: $81.4 million, bringing the PAC to $153 million in cash on hand. While Johnson has yet to release how much he’s personally raised for the House GOP campaign arm and various candidates, he also predicted a “record quarter.” Still, Republicans are lagging behind Democrats.

Trump could help House Republicans on that front; there’s been repeated talk of him holding a joint rally or fundraiser with Johnson. But despite their close relationship, Johnson said that’s not on the books right now, citing “intervening events” like Trump’s assassination attempts and the natural disasters.

It’s clear Johnson feels the pressure. He frequently touts his heavy travel record at conference meetings and campaign stops, and his colleagues recognize he’s putting in a lot of work. Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), who traveled with Johnson throughout the Texas swing, called Johnson “relentless” and a “workhorse” in these campaign efforts.

“Jumping into this job just under a year ago, he didn't have any fundraising apparatus — and he has gone near vertical in his fundraising capabilities. He's helping everybody, even folks who didn't support him,” said Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), who also joined on the trip.

Johnson is largely focused on campaigning with battleground Republicans as he seeks to expand their narrow majority. That would help him personally, too: The larger margin Johnson has in the House, the safer his grasp on the gavel will be.

Leadership Future

If he doesn’t flip multiple seats, Johnson will have to work to appease conservatives and others in his conference who aren’t sold on him as speaker. And if they fail to keep the majority altogether, then his colleagues largely believe he will step aside — or be pushed.

Asked if he’d consider seeking the position of minority leader if House Republicans lose, Johnson remarked: “I'm not even thinking about that.” (He had a similar response in March.)

He is expected to seek the speakership again if the GOP wins the majority, even if it’s narrow. But he has vocal critics who are likely to complicate that, including the three who led the ouster effort against Johnson: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). Nearly a dozen Republicans voted to advance that effort, and those numbers could grow, especially if Trump wins the White House and doesn’t back Johnson for speaker.

Even Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), a Freedom Caucus member traveling with Johnson for part of the Harlingen-Seguin Texas swing of the trip, declined to say if he’d back Johnson for speaker if the GOP keeps the majority — though he did praise Johnson’s campaigning and fundraising efforts. That differed from the other Republican members traveling with Johnson, who emphatically pledged to back him if the election goes their way.

When asked what, if anything, he has done to win over his biggest critics, Johnson said that he treats them like everyone else . The evangelical Christian cited a passage of scripture he tries to live by: That one should try, as much as possible, to live peaceably “with all men.”

“I treat them the same way I have always treated them and I treat everybody,” said Johnson. “I don't keep a record of wrongs. I hold no grudges against Massie or Greene or anybody. … And to be honest, if you asked me to name the list of people that [wanted to oust him], I couldn't name it right now.”

The speaker’s ability to take blows and hardly react — except for dropping his usual smile — is markedly different from the tactics of some of his predecessors. Former Speaker John Boehner, for example, was known for taking action against members who stepped out of line, even for something as small as breaking his dress code.

As Ellzey put it: “We've got a very narrow majority. So, he's not afforded the luxury of being able to put somebody in time out.”

Some members, however, argue that Johnson needs to do more to keep rebellious members in line. Similarly, some wonder if he will be able to stand up to Trump if both men are in power next year. Johnson, for his part, said Trump has acknowledged the difficulty of navigating an incredibly thin majority, even when the two disagree on the best path forward.

There’s some evidence to that point. Trump had called for House Republicans to shut down the government last month unless Democrats agreed to a bill that banned non-citizens from registering to vote. Johnson eventually greenlit spending legislation without that provision, citing the need to avoid a shutdown so close to the election. Despite clearly defying Trump’s wishes, the former president did not criticize the speaker publicly.

And, for Johnson, that is a clear win.

“We have thoughtful discussions about things. And at the end of the day, he knows that I genuinely believe I'm doing the right thing, so he's not going to come out and criticize me for that. And we've had very difficult choices to make,” Johnson said, noting that Trump will often remark to Johnson that he has the “hardest job.”

“If I were king, we would make lots of different choices, but I'm not. I'm in a legislative body with a three-vote margin, so I can only do what's possible, not always what my preferences are.”