Former President Donald Trump said that "this is not the time" to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson but didn't rule it out in the future, Breitbart reported. This comes as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate Johnson's seat failed in a vote.
The Georgia Republican has been a vocal critic of Johnson for his willingness to work with Democrats and threatened to oust Johnson if he didn't shape up. However, the House quickly rejected her motion in a vote Wednesday.
Although Trump supports Greene, he isn't keen on switching out GOP leadership in Congress. "I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene," Trump posted to his Truth Social. "She’s got Spirit, she’s got Fight, and I believe she’ll be around, and on our side, for a long time to come."
"However, right now, Republicans have to be fighting the Radical Left Democrats, and all the Damage they have done to our Country. With a Majority of One, shortly growing to three or four, we’re not in a position of voting on a Motion to Vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time," Trump added.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who joined Greene in introducing the motion, said that Johnson had committed "three betrayals" that justified a vote to get him out of office. He made these remarks during a May 1 news conference.
The first betrayal was passing President Joe Biden's bloated $1.7 billion omnibus spending bill. The second offense was getting the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act passed, which renewed the government's ability to spy on American citizens through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The third came after Johnson passed a foreign aid package worth $95 billion by bundling four separate bills over the objections of many Republicans and then used an administrative trick to ram it through. "They pretended like we voted on four separate bills," Massie said.
"And after those votes passed, they changed them to amendments and concurred with the Senate bill and sent it back to the Senate." It also tied the fate of Israel's $26 billion in aid to $61 billion for the war in Ukraine and allocated $9 billion for humanitarian relief to Gaza and $8 billion for Taiwan to push back against a Chinese takeover.
As even Trump acknowledged, Johnson is a "good man who is trying very hard" at a time when switching leadership isn't good for the party anyway. "I also wish certain things were done over the last period of two months, but we will get them done, together," Trump continued in his post.
"It is my request that Republicans vote for ‘THE MOTION TO TABLE.’ We WILL WIN BIG – AND IT WILL BE SOON!" he said in his social media post. Trump got his wish as the vote ended 359-43 to table the issue.
This means Johsnon will stay in his seat to fight another day, and the House Speaker thanked his fellow lawmakers for it. "I want to say that I appreciate the show of confidence for my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort," Johson said, according to CNN.
"I’ve made clear here every day, I intend to do my job, I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which I was elected to do. And I’ll let the chips fall where they may."
Although Johnson isn't perfect, Trump is right that there are bigger fish to fry right now. The GOP can't afford this in-fighting when Trump's shot at the White House is on the line.
