Trump flexes power over House GOP in whirlwind Speaker race

President-elect Trump reasserted his power over the House GOP conference during Friday’s whirlwind Speaker vote, proving that, despite some recent doubts, he still has significant sway over Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) victory on the first ballot marked a much-needed win in Washington for Trump, who endorsed the Louisiana Republican for the top job, made calls on his behalf and vouched for him as recently as Friday morning.

And the victory came at a critical moment for the incoming president.

Heading into Friday’s vote, questions loomed about Trump’s influence among GOP lawmakers after most in the conference — including Johnson — bucked his demand that Congress include a debt ceiling increase in government funding legislation last month, passing a bill that did not address the borrowing limit.

Then, in the days before the Speaker election, roughly a dozen hardline conservatives said they were undecided on Johnson’s bid despite Trump’s public support for Johnson, a group large enough to block him from the gavel.

But on the first ballot Friday, just three Republicans voted for someone other than the Louisiana Republican — far fewer than the swell of GOP lawmakers who were withholding support in the final hours before the vote.

And after last-minute phone conversations with Trump, two of the holdouts — Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) — switched their vote in favor of Johnson, giving the GOP leader just enough support needed to clinch the gavel.

In a letter to GOP lawmakers after the vote, 11 members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, including Norman, said they backed Johnson “despite our sincere reservations” with the Speaker because of their “steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors,” which is set to take place on Monday.

“There is always room to negotiate on the so-called ‘leadership’ positions under the rules; in the meantime, each one of our election certificates is still equal,” the group wrote. “Personalities can be debated later, but right now there is zero room for error on the policies the American people demanded when they voted for President Trump — and the ones necessary to save our country.”

The sequence of events — which played out in a stunning fashion on Capitol Hill — are underscoring that, despite Trump’s recent setbacks, he remains a towering force among Republican lawmakers, a posture that will likely increase when he officially begins his second term in the White House.

“The president wanted the Speaker, the president just won a big election, and so I think he, broadly speaking, deserves to kind of get the folks that he wants to have in place,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of Johnson’s sharpest critics who reportedly spoke to Trump ahead of the Speaker vote, told reporters after voting for the Louisiana Republican on the first ballot.

Trump, for his part, was quick to tout Johnson’s win on the first ballot as a victory for Republicans.

“Mike will be a Great Speaker, and our Country will be the beneficiary,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday. “The People of America have waited four years for Common Sense, Strength, and Leadership. They’ll get it now, and America will be greater than ever before!”

While Norman and Self contended that Trump’s call was not necessarily the main linchpin behind their decision to switch to support Johnson — they also pointed to assurances about the legislative process moving forward — the conversations proved pivotal in getting Johnson over the finish line.

When it became clear that Johnson would fall short of the gavel on the first ballot, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) worked to get Trump on the phone, two sources familiar with the matter told The Hill. Self voted against Johnson even after having a one-on-one phone call with Trump before the vote, one of the sources said.

When Mace got Trump on the line, she handed the phone to Norman, who spoke to Trump while outside the House chamber, the sources said. Norman said Trump was golfing when he was on the phone.

At one point, Norman said Trump made a dig at his endorsement of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. After Haley dropped out, Norman endorsed Trump.

Hardline conservatives throughout the Speaker fight had demanded that Johnson agree to a host of amorphous commitments regarding spending cuts and the legislative process, but Johnson consistently said he would not cut any deals to secure the Speakership.

Shortly after Norman’s call, Johnson gathered with Norman, Self, Mace, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Hogan Gidley, a Johnson staffer who previously worked in the Trump White House, in a private room off the House floor. Mace once again called Trump and put the phone on speakerphone to speak to the room, according to the sources.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), the only holdout, was seen as immovable in his opposition.

The call grew tense at times, according to one source. Trump used expletives throughout the discussion, a different source said.

The president-elect's message, the sources said, was that voters delivered Republicans a mandate, and installing Johnson as Speaker was imperative to begin the process of achieving the president-elect’s agenda. Trump did not threaten to back primary challenges to Norman and Self, two of the sources said.

“In no uncertain terms they were getting in [the] way of his America First agenda,” one of the sources said, describing Trump’s message.

As the lobbying effort on Friday was underway, Cammack spoke to the parliamentarian and worked to keep the vote open so House GOP leadership did not have to move to a second ballot, which they initially intended to do, according to one of the sources. Republicans worked to hide the tellers to prevent the vote from closing, the source said.

Finally, roughly an hour after the roll call vote concluded, Norman and Self emerged from the private room and walked to the well of the chamber, where they changed their vote to be in favor of Johnson, giving the Louisiana Republican the majority support he needed to clinch the gavel.

“The president was real helpful,” Norman told reporters after the vote. “His message to me: Mike is the only one that’s got the likeability factor to be elected Speaker. I get that.”

The Speaker vote was a key test of Trump’s influence as he prepares to take office, and he could ill afford another setback after 38 House Republicans voted against the debt ceiling increase he pushed for.

Johnson’s inability to get the increase passed as part of the eventual spending agreement frustrated Trump, according to multiple sources, leaving open the possibility that the president-elect would not publicly back him in the Speaker race.

But Trump’s allies argued there was no clear alternative that could garner the necessary support, and that a messy fight for the gavel could delay the certification of Trump’s victory and undermine GOP efforts to hit the ground running upon his inauguration later this month.

Trump did ultimately work to sway skeptical Republicans publicly and privately, as the president-elect and his allies argued a swift vote to elect Johnson as Speaker was necessary for a smooth start to his second term.

In addition to his private calls with lawmakers, Trump publicly lobbied on social media for Republicans to back Johnson. Trump was also in touch with Johnson throughout the process. The two spoke ahead of Trump’s public endorsement of Johnson on Monday, and the two met at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Day to discuss strategy ahead of Friday’s vote.

One Republican source argued the Speaker vote underscored where Trump could be most valuable in a razor-thin House majority: By working to persuade or pressure a small number of holdouts, as opposed to dozens of skeptics like in the government funding debate.

The funding fight and speakership battle, meanwhile, likely served as a preview of what is likely to be an at-times tense fight to get Trump’s agenda through narrow Republican majorities in both the House and Senate over the next two years.

“Obviously, you have to have a little bit of that drama. But the reality is that we have the House and the Senate because of my father, because of the mandate that the American gave all of our representatives,” Donald Trump Jr. said on Fox News Friday. “And it’s time for them to start representing that — time to start representing the constituency that elected them there.”