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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threat to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson has run up against a new obstacle: former President Donald Trump, who publicly defended Johnson against Greene’s attacks.
At a joint news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, Trump praised Johnson’s job performance and appeared to try to soft-soap Greene into easing up on her pressure campaign.
“We’re getting along very well with the speaker, and I get along very well with Marjorie. We have a speaker who was voted in, and it was a complicated process. And I think very — it’s not an easy situation for any speaker,” Trump said.
“I think he’s doing a very good job, about as good as you’re going to do,” he said about Johnson. “I’m sure that Marjorie understands that. She’s a very good friend of mine and I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker.”
Setting aside the fact that Greene said Johnson was “full of s---” just hours before the two men’s joint appearance, Trump’s expression of confidence in Johnson is yet another blow to Greene’s efforts to browbeat the speaker into alignment with her agenda. Her threat to bring a motion to vacate has gained little to no traction among her fellow Republicans, who are still bruised and tired from last year’s chaotic speakership circus. And now the person to whom she has tied her entire political career is essentially telling her to back off.
This may well be the one and only time that Trump tries to mediate Greene and Johnson’s rocky relationship — after all, he currently has far more pressing matters to deal with. The former president is possibly the only figure in the party whom Greene will heed on the matter. Whether Trump’s comments are a sufficient deterrent against further attacks from Greene, only time will tell.