Republican Mike Johnson was returned as speaker of the US House of Representatives on Friday (Jan 3) with the crucial backing of incoming president Donald Trump, ending a bitter standoff that threatened to see the 2025 session opening in chaos.
Johnson had angered backbenchers by working with Democrats to pass legislation, and his victory was secured only after tense backroom negotiations that saw more than a dozen rank-and-file Republicans voice doubts over his leadership.
A chaotic 2023-25 session was marked by conservative anger in particular over the Louisiana lawmaker’s handling of spending negotiations, as fiscal hawks lined up to accuse him of being soft on the deficit.
In the end, there were only three Republican holdouts as voting began – with all 215 Democrats backing their leader Hakeem Jeffries. Johnson was able to keep his speakership ambitions alive by persuading two to change tack.
With the exception of Kentucky conservative hardliner Thomas Massie, the opposition to Johnson always looked superficial, and he had spent much of the week working the phones and holding meetings with the conservatives who had opposed his candidacy.
He appeared to assuage some lingering doubts in the hours before the vote by pledging to “reduce the size and scope of the federal government, hold the bureaucracy accountable, and move the United States to a more sustainable fiscal trajectory”.
And Trump weighed in early Friday with a social media post wishing Johnson “Good luck” and declaring him “very close to having 100% support.”
With the vote looking set to go down to the wire, former Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 84 and recently suffered a fractured hip, turned up to cast her ballot, wearing flat heels for possibly the first time in her career.
Defeat for Johnson would have marked another embarrassment for Trump, who was shown the limits of his sway over House Republicans after they rebuffed his demands for a suspension of the country’s borrowing limit in December.
