President-elect Donald Trump endorsed Mike Johnson for House speaker on Monday following a fight over government funding earlier this month that divided Republicans and imperiled his leadership bid.
Trump, 78, butted heads with Johnson over the speaker’s decision to not suspend the nation’s debt ceiling — but still threw his weight behind the Louisiana Republican to win back the gavel in January.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” the incoming president posted on Truth Social. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!”
The soon-to-be 47th president had hoped to tie federal spending to an elimination of the debt limit, joining with tech billionaire Elon Musk and fiscal hawks in the House Republican conference to tank earlier drafts of the funding bill.
On Dec. 20, Congress passed a slimmed-down version of the legislation that excluded the debt ceiling provision, while still cutting other costly provisions.
In his post, Trump also knocked Democrats for the “very expensive” campaigns of their nominees President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and said the pair’s administration had been a “sinking ship.”
“IT WAS A DISASTER!!!” he declared. “LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN.”
