On Monday evening, former President Donald Trump and current Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson met at Trump's Mar-A-Lago home. At this point, it's unknown what, specifically, was discussed, but the speaker has expressed support for a second term for Donald Trump. It's likely that plans for a second Trump term were a topic of conversation but as yet no details have been released.
Speaker Mike Johnson met with former President Trump on Monday night at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, a source familiar with the meeting confirmed to The Hill.
Johnson was at Trump’s estate for a fundraiser for Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.). It marked the first time Johnson and Trump have spoken in person since Johnson became Speaker in late October.
Trump and Johnson have had a warm relationship, with the Speaker just last week saying he’s “all in” for Trump’s 2024 White House bid.
Johnson has supported Trump in the past, including during the aftermath of the 2020 election:
“He had a phenomenal first term,” the Speaker added. “His first two years, as you all know, we brought about the greatest economic numbers in the history of the world, not just the country, because his policies work. And I’m all in for President Trump.”
Johnson in 2020 was one of the central lawmakers pushing a legal theory to reject President Biden’s election victory, as Trump spread false claims that the election was fraudulent, and Trump described Johnson as “MAGA Mike” after he won the Speaker’s gavel.
This news comes as former President Trump continues to surge in the early polling, as of this writing commanding 59.4 percent of the RealClearPolitics polling average for the Republican presidential nomination. President Biden is at the moment holding at 72 percent for the RealClearPolitics average for the Democrat nomination, making a Trump/Biden rematch look increasingly likely (disclaimer, as always, not one primary vote has yet been cast for either party and polling, in the last few cycles, has been uncertain.)
The meeting comes on the heels of Speaker Johnson's release of all of the January 6th tapes.
Why is this significant? Should Donald Trump Grover Cleveland himself into a historic, non-consecutive second term, he will have an ambitious agenda (just ask him) and will need a friendly Congress to help him; as president, having a good relationship with the speaker of the House (assuming the GOP holds the House in the 2024 elections) and the Senate Republicans will not only be important, it may well be irreplaceable. Given the vitriol directed at Trump by Democrat political types lately, it's safe to assume that there will be essentially no support for a Trump agenda among congressional Democrats.