Here’s the problem for Republican politicians heading into 2026 and 2028. You turned the GOP into a Trump-branded, populist, anti-establishment party, but what if you now control the government and it’s not going well?
A time-tested answer: ritual human sacrifice. Because of this, the next year is going to be miserable for House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Let’s set the scene.
The speaker’s job has never really been fair. What has changed in recent decades is that more and more power has been concentrated in the office of the speaker, while, at the same time, the speaker is expected to defer to the president’s agenda when the same party holds the White House. It was a trend before Johnson got the job, but he’s taken it to an extreme we’ve never seen.
Also, speaker partisanship has traditionally focused on protecting the political interests of caucus members, not the president. And it is usually tempered by the obligation to protect the integrity of the institution. Johnson has subordinated both obligations to a significant degree on the White House agenda.
President Trump took political ownership of the economy with his “Emancipation Day” in April and various laws — and the Constitution itself — required Congress to play a major, major, role in trade, even though Congress allowed him to.
Johnson then placed the House in recess at the behest of the White House during the longest government shutdown in American history, leaving the GOP looking AWOL and impotent.
Now, Johnson’s defenders deny that he is just Trump’s yes-man. Because Johnson is a team player, they say, he voices his objections and concerns behind the scenes, not wanting to publicly defy the president. For example, Johnson has Allegedly The White House said the House GOP has no appetite to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
But this only accentuates the problem. By quietly coordinating with the White House, there is nothing to dispel the perception that Johnson, and by extension, the entire GOP caucus, owns the status quo.
Of course, being a rubber stamp for Trump and taking credit for the status quo won’t be a problem for Republicans if Trump’s “golden age” is about the economy and the country. It doesn’t. Six in 10 Americans now think the country is running well Wrong track.
To be fair, the economy isn’t doing terribly. But whatever its strengths, they are not being realized by most Americans. That’s why “deal” has become the mantra everywhere except in the White House in Washington, where Trump says the economy has “never been better” and calls affordability concerns “cheating.” Trump is literally borrowing a page from President Biden, who also told voters not to believe their lying eyes — or wallets — about the cost of living.
According to the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment, Remains near historic lows. Trump’s overall approval rating 41%While independent and some Trump too voters They are broken from him. According to Gallup, less than that 3 out of 10 Americans think the economy is getting better, even as Trump insists we’re living in a golden age.
But Trump’s grip on the base of the Republican Party — and the right-wing media — is still very strong. So the last thing any of them can do is directly attack the president and his policies, especially when the House GOP has supported or even tacitly accepted them. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) openly defied Trump over the Epstein files issue, and announced her retirement from Congress soon after.
So what do you do when you need to prove that you are not the author of the installation tool and the status quo? Find a scapegoat. And right now, Johnson might as well be tied to the A’s standing in the lion’s den.
Rep. Alice Stefanik (RN.Y.) wanted to run for governor of New York by attacking New York City’s new socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. But Trump just started a lovefest with her in the Oval Office. So now is Stefanik Attacking Johnson. Rep. running for governor in South Carolina. So is Nancy Mace (RS.C.).
“I definitely think the current leadership, and especially the speaker, needs to change the way they approach work,” embattled GOP Rep. Kevin Key (R-Calif.) told CNN. “We really have to go back to the leadership of the House of Representatives.”
In a sense this is unfair to Johnson. He only got the job because he was willing to be Trump’s valet. But one of the first rules of the Trumpified GOP is that Trump can never fail, only he can fail. This is why Johnson is set to be MAGA’s fall guy. It takes a heart of stone to laugh.
X: @JonahDispatch
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
