OMG NO! OMG SWEET BABY JESUS IN THE MANGER NO! "Mike Johnson's speakership is in trouble" [View all]

Mike Johnson’s speakership is in trouble

https://www.salon.com/2025/12/14/mike-johnsons-speakership-is-in-trouble/

Trump declared last week that House Speaker Mike Johnson “has been a fantastic speaker,” making it clear that he considers Johnson to be one of his most important subordinates. Trump wasn’t doing Johnson any favors. With his latest approval ratings firmly in the thirties, the president is increasingly seen as more of an albatross than a benefit to the GOP. And right now, with House Republicans on the verge of a full-scale mutiny, Johnson needs all the help he can get.

In fairness, Johnson is not the first Republican speaker to find himself in that situation. In fact, it has become something of a ritual sacrifice for the leader of the House GOP to be unceremoniously deposed by his own members. Johnson himself won the post after his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Ca., was removed from his post after a painful series of votes in which the caucus finally settled on the virtually unknown congressman from Louisiana to lead them.

McCarthy had a tumultuous nine-month tenure after the Republican members staged a raucous spectacle by taking an historic 15 votes to elect him to the job. Before him, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, had been pushed to take the job when the caucus forced out former Speaker John Boehner. But Ryan was so disillusioned that he ended up quitting politics altogether after just three years. Boehner abruptly quit when he lost support after deigning to compromise. His predecessor, Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert — now a convicted sex offender — resigned due to scandal, as did Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich before him.

Republicans eat their own. And apparently a speaker of the House is a delicacy. So it’s not surprising that Johnson would find himself on the run at this point in his term.