(NewsNation) — For the next two years, the relationship between Republican President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson will be one of the most important in Washington, D.C. So far, in the first months of Trump’s second term, that relationship has delivered the president and his party some big legislative wins.
The two men are bound by trust, loyalty and results, according to two sources familiar with both politicians.
Johnson and Trump are fairly aligned on policy and the former has been a vocal supporter of the president. Johnson won his election in 2016 as a Trump backer, and as speaker, endorsed Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries. In return, Trump endorsed Johnson’s reelection bid for House speaker and helped to keep competition at bay.
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Johnson is a straight shooter with the president and consistently explains what should and shouldn’t be done to pass Trump’s agenda, both sources confirm. This differs from the way his embattled predecessor Kevin McCarthy operated, with one source saying he tried to manage Trump instead of being upfront about the state of play.
One source says another reason for Trump and Johnson’s good working relationship is a personal connection. As first reported by The Atlantic, Johnson’s two sons nearly drowned during a trip to Florida shortly after he was elected speaker in 2023. At the time, Trump called Johnson and “a lot of trust and a lot of faith was built in that one little exchange,” a source said.
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Hogan Gidley has worked with both men, first as White House principal deputy press secretary during Trump’s first term and now as a communications consultant in Johnson’s office.
“What President Trump really respects, and what he likes, is good dealmaking,” even if the speaker’s approach is different from the president’s, Gidley said.
With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, Gidley says both policy and politics are directed by the president.
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“He sets the tone. And to the speaker’s great credit, as he has said on multiple occasions publicly, ‘[Trump] calls the plays, I run ‘em.’”
When Trump said there will be no cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs, “that’s the play call,” Gidley said. Even as Democrats point out, with data supported by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, that the Republicans will need to slash Medicaid and possibly more to achieve their promised $2 trillion in cuts, a source familiar with the GOP budget negotiations says they will “get as far as (they) can.”
“As Mike Johnson said, there’s plenty of fraud, waste and abuse, we can find in these agencies to give us some of that money,” the source said. Meanwhile, Trump is also looking to install loyalists such as Dr. Mehmet Oz and Frank Bisignano to oversee these programs.
The success of the Trump-Johnson pairing has not gone unnoticed.
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“I think they like one another. I think they respect one another, and I think they’ve delivered for one another,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-La., chair of the House Appropriations Committee. “They’ve each been able to bring to the table what the other one needed at the right time.”
Some in the opposition see it differently.
“Anytime Trump says something, anytime Trump tells the speaker to jump, he says ‘how high?’…This man has given away all of his power to Trump,” said new Democrat Vice Chair for Communications Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas
Keeping the agenda on track
Despite the majority in both chambers of Congress, Trump and Johnson have had to work together to get members of their own party to support the agenda.
Twice, they got spending-averse Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., to flip his vote in their favor — first before a vote on the budget resolution during which they convinced him there would be a reduction in spending going forward and then again when the resolution was up for another vote. The president called and assured Burchett that defense cuts were coming as Elon Musk-led “DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency] was gonna go full force to the Pentagon.”
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“In the past, all I’ve been is lied to,” Burchett said. “And (neither) President Trump nor Speaker Johnson has lied to me yet. And I’m giving them that opportunity to lie to me, but if they do, I’m done.”
Though the continued resolution included a $6 billion increase for Defense, or the “war pimps” as Burchett called them, it also included $13 billion in overall cuts. Burchett said he was pleased that, for the first time in seven years, Congress would decrease the amount of money being spent. The resolution passed, with Republicans only losing one GOP vote.
Burchett says he was never worried about retribution for deviating from his party and that Trump never raised his voice or threatened him.
However, he admits some of his colleagues fear Trump’s “wrath will rain upon them” if they vote against his agenda.
Sources say the key to Trump and Johnson’s success is not just the trust they share with each other but also between the speaker and Republican members of the House.
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“All the members may have different opinions about the speaker’s style or leadership, but one thing is universal: they all trust the speaker,” a source said, explaining Johnson doesn’t make backroom deals but will continue discussions without specific promises.
Setting a different tone in the second term
Trump and Johnson’s relationship is also different from former Speaker Paul Ryan, who Gidley says actively worked “against Trump’s agenda” during his first term, “stopping funding for the wall, refusing to fund deportation efforts.”
Political aides also got in the way of Trump’s first-term agenda and the president “ had several staffers telling him why he couldn’t do things,” Gidley said.
The president, better prepared for D.C. politics in his second term, “has more MAGA-aligned staffers who tell him how he can accomplish his agenda, including executive orders on day one, and public relations and legal strategies to help execute the president’s policies,” Gidley said.
Rep. Chip Roy, who is the policy chair of the House Freedom Caucus, acknowledges the difference in the GOP conference from the previous Congress when Republicans only controlled the House.
“I had some strong disagreements last year with some of the things we were doing. This year, we’ve had a few disagreements, but we’ve been able to come together and rally around to achieve the objective,” Roy said.
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Can anything break them up?
Johnson and Trump’s relationship is a “marriage of convenience,” one Republican source told NewsNation, though it consists of “mutual loyalty and an alliance that’s a little bit more durable.”
But should things change, some political strategists think Trump’s loyalty to Johnson may not stick.
“As long as Mike Johnson is delivering on exactly what Donald Trump expects and wants, and he can control Johnson completely, then he is also, for the moment, useful to Donald Trump,” said Dan Kanninen, a consultant who was battleground director to both the Biden and Harris campaigns. “I think what’s interesting to watch is when that breaks apart.”
“I think the Republicans who are going to be heavily targeted in the midterm [elections] are really going to wonder what half a trillion dollars of Medicaid and Medicare cuts means for them and wonder what a bad economy and high inflation means for them,” he said.
Kanninen posits they may not be so willing to sign onto Trump’s agenda, and the question will be if and how Johnson survives that.
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This week, Congress returns from recess with new hurdles for Trump and Johnson to face on the horizon, including the budget process known as reconciliation, which will delve into potential cuts, tax cuts and the debt ceiling.
“President Trump was proud to help Speaker Johnson get the CR over the finish line. They have a great relationship, and the speaker will remain a crucial ally to President Trump … to implement his America First agenda,” Anna Kelly, deputy White House press secretary, told NewsNation.
Time will tell if the relationship remains sunny.
