Mike Johnson is ‘weak’ and functions like a Trump staffer, Republican say in scathing new report

Mike Johnson’s efforts to keep President Donald Trump happy are leaving rank-and-file Republicans unhappy with his obsequiousness

Just over two years after House Republicans elevated Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson from backbench obscurity to national notoriety by electing him Speaker of the House of Representatives, the former right-wing litigator is in deep water with his own conference because of his desire to placate President Donald Trump at all costs.

The Atlantic chronicled Johnson’s troubles in a recent report that digs into the House GOP’s dissatisfaction with Johnson, who last week had to declare that he had “not lost control” of his chamber to reporters who questioned him on the unprecedented use of previously-rare parliamentary maneuvers to bypass his authority and bring up bipartisan bills for a vote on the House floor.

Johnson’s once iron grip on the House floor schedule and his desire to never, ever permit anything to happen that would displease Trump have left members feeling powerless while serving in what is supposed to be the most powerful chamber in the most powerful branch of government — the legislative branch.

That’s because he has routinely allowed the House to abdicate its own responsibilities and giving up long-held powers, including by inserting language into procedural rules to neuter the chamber’s ability to weigh in on the tariffs Trump has imposed by executive fiat.

One former House GOP member, ex-representative Bob Good of Virginia, said Johnson is “a puppet of the president” who is in his job only because Trump allows it.

Another, who requested anonymity, said Johnson is a “weak speaker” who “essentially functions like a staff member” of the president’s.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is drawing fire from fellow Republicans who have labeled him ‘weak.’ (AP)

Representative Kevin Kiley, a California Republican who was one of a handful from the GOP who dissented from Johnson’s decision to keep the House out of session for more than a month during the longest-ever government shutdown in U.S. history — largely to avoid swearing in a Democratic member-elect who would’ve provided a key vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act — told the magazine the the House GOP needs “a course correction” after a year of Johnson largely outsourcing decision-making to Trump.

Critics of the House Speaker refused to give their names for fear of retaliation, but they were both equally dismissive of Johnson’s work since he was elected to replace former speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.

“I think he’s a good man, a good attorney, a good constitutionalist, and a bad politician,” one House Republican said.

Another told The Atlantic that Johnson “offends everyone” because he is obsessed with “not offending anyone.”

Former House GOP member, ex-representative Bob Good of Virginia, said Johnson is ‘a puppet of the president’ who is in his job only because Donald Trump allows it. (Getty Images)

Other members of the House GOP conference are voting with their feet, largely out of dissatisfaction with Johnson’s stewardship of the chamber and the growing sense of dread they feel at the strong prospect of serving in the minority if Democrats retake the chamber after next year’s midterm elections.

One such member, Georgia firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, is not waiting for what many believe has become inevitable.

With a full year left in her third term, Greene will resign her safe GOP seat on January 5 and return to the Peach State as a private citizen after the onetime Trump superfan incensed the president by leading the charge to put the now-infamous Epstein files bill to a vote just over a month ago, and by openly criticizing his refusal to back extending subsidies for health care plans used by millions of Americans — including her own adult children.

Another Deep South member, South Carolina’s Nancy Mace, is giving up her seat to run for the Palmetto State’s governors mansion. She lashed out at Johnson in a New York Times op-ed this month in which she praised former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s iron-fisted but velvet-gloved stewardship of Democratic majorities during her terms atop the chamber from 2006 to 2011 and 2019 to 2023.

She wrote that Pelosi “was a more effective House speaker than any Republican this century” and savaged Johnson and the House GOP leadership for having bottled up most pathways for members to get bills to a vote on the floor while letting “a small number of lawmakers negotiate major legislation behind closed doors” only to “spring it on members with little notice or opportunity for input.”