Trump Says ‘I Stand With the Speaker’ as Johnson Faces Ouster Threat

Former President Donald Trump confirmed that he backs House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) amid threats by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust him.

“I stand with the speaker,” President Trump said at a joint press conference with Mr. Johnson at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on April 12.

“We’re getting along very well with the speaker, and I get along very well with Marjorie,” he added.

The former president also noted that the congressman from Louisiana is “doing a very good job” and “about as good as you’re going to do” in that position, adding that he was sure that Ms. Greene understood that.

“She’s a very good friend of mine, and I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker,” he said.

Ms. Greene has been very vocal about her support of President Trump, such as wearing a MAGA hat, among other things, during the State of the Union Address and speaking at his campaign rallies.

Related Stories

The congresswoman had a meeting with Mr. Johnson on April 10, during which she told reporters, “He has not done the job that we elected him to do. And I told him that.”

She also criticized him for voting against Republican efforts to add a warrant requirement to the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

President Trump was also asked what he thought of the rule on the motion to vacate and if he thought it was just creating chaos.

Rather than providing a direct answer, he remarked that “it’s unfortunate that people bring it up because right now, we have much bigger problems” and listed a variety of things for which he blamed President Joe Biden.

Those problems specifically mentioned included record inflation, and the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group. He said both events should not have happened and could end in a world war, adding at other points of his address his belief that neither incident would have happened if he was still president.

“We have a president that doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing,” he said. “And we could end up in a world war, you know, we have just a little bit less than seven months now … before Nov. 5, but that’s an eternity when people are incompetent.”

President Trump and Mr. Johnson met to discuss the immigration crisis and what they see is a direct tie to election integrity. The Speaker announced that House Republicans intended to put forth a bill that would ensure only U.S. citizens could vote in federal elections.

The legislation, he said, will require every single person registered to vote in federal elections to first prove that they are an American citizen, and, when it goes to the floor, there will be “a record vote” by both parties.

“You‘ll see that the Republicans stand for election integrity,“ Mr. Johnson said. ”And then we’ll be able to ask this very important question of the Democrats.

“They’re going to have to go on record: ‘Do you believe that Americans and Americans alone should be the ones who vote in American elections?’ We’re about to find out their answer.”

Savannah Hulsey Pointer and Samantha Flom contributed to this report.