{"id":135777,"date":"2025-10-21T09:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135777\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:52:07","slug":"staying-loyal-to-donald-trump-tests-republican-speakers-survival-skills-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135777\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying loyal to Donald Trump tests Republican speaker\u2019s survival skills \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little over two months have passed since Mike Johnson, Republican<\/a> leader of the House, appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the headline: The Survivor. It was a recognition of his consolidation of a tricky role through a courtly manner and syrupy speaking style that belie a ruthlessness and an unyielding Christian conservatism.<\/p>\n

Unlike his leader<\/a>, the Louisianan had no problem with the cover, which depicted him in an autumnal gold, bespectacled and groomed and wearing an expression that falls somewhere between combative and unctuous. Since his lightning ascent to the role three years ago, Johnson has been an adroit Trump<\/a> loyalist. But the waters are turning choppy.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Johnson found himself as explainer-in-chief to all sides. First, he had to contend with growing frustration from within sections of the party as the government shutdown reached its 20th day. Marjorie Taylor Green, the Georgia firebrand, has emerged as one of the few Republicans willing to break rank with party consensus and she could contain her frustration no longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe House should be in session working,\u201d she stated on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be finishing appropriations. Our committees should be working. We should be passing bills that make president Trump\u2019s executive orders permanent. I have no respect for the decision to refuse to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even as Johnson fielded the usual routine of questions about the stand-off between the Republican and Democratic members of both Senate and House, he also found himself required to dignify the crude and zany social media skit that president Donald Trump reposted over the weekend. Responding to Saturday\u2019s No Kings march<\/a>, the AI video depicted Trump in fighter pilot regalia and a king\u2019s golden crown, soaring high above the American protestors before releasing tonnes of waste matter on them. Some 2,600 gatherings attracted almost seven million people in major cities and small towns across the United States in a show of protest defined by a uniformly peaceful atmosphere and absurdist costuming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president uses social media to make the point,\u201d said Johnson, with obvious discomfort when asked about why Trump had reposted it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can argue that he\u2019s probably the most effective person who\u2019s used social media for that. He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents and that\u2019s what these people are doing. I think in one of these photos there is a picture of the president hanging in effigy by a noose. I mean, it\u2019s unconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, Johnson was a guest in the White House at a reception for two all-conquering college baseball teams from Louisiana. If Johnson is feeling the pressure from the accumulative effect of the government shutdown, it might have occurred to him that the president seems blissfully unconcerned as he addressed the room. If there is a crisis on the Hill, it was business as usual in the White House: a visit from the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in the morning, followed by the joint-signing of a minerals and rare earth deal, and then merry baseball talk in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

And added to Johnson\u2019s worry-list is the loudening saga behind his refusal to swear in the newest member to Congress, Arizona\u2019s Adelita Grijalva, who succeeded her father, Paul Grijalva in the state\u2019s seventh district following his death from cancer in March. Grijalva was elected on September 23rd. Johnson initially refused to have her sworn in until after the results were certified. Now, he has taken the position that the ceremony cannot take place until Congress is functioning as normal and the House has returned to session. \u201cAs soon as we get back to legislative session, when Chuck Schumer allows us to turn the lights back on,\u201d he said on Monday when asked about the delay. Grijalva said a phrase she read describing her situation as \u201ccongressional purgatory\u201d as a perfect summary of her limbo. She is in Washington, and wishes to be sworn in immediately, citing a drip-drip list of frustrations, from access to her office to wi-fi connectivity. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just here,\u201d she told reporters outside the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, right here I had to wait until a member of Congress came to escort me in. Everyone keeps asking where that amazing little button is,\u201d she said pointing to her lapel and the absent congressional pin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that represents 812,000 people. We are going to keep trying to put as much pressure as possible until he realises that he is wrong. He [Johnson] is contradicting himself at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Democratic contention is that Johnson is obstructing or willfully delaying Grijalva\u2019s swearing for a specific reason: once that formality has concluded, the new congresswoman has announced her intention to become the final signature on the list of 218 required on the bipartisan petition, led by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie and Californian Democrat Ro Khanna, needed to bring to House a vote to release the Department of Justice files on the Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> investigation. Grijalva had made that part of her election campaign manifesto.<\/p>\n

After dominating the news cycles in the United States through August, the Epstein files refuse to die and will be propelled into the headline\u2019s again with Tuesday\u2019s publication of Nobody\u2019s Girl, the harrowing posthumous account by Virginia Roberts Giuffre of her years of horrific abuse by Epstein and scores of men detailed in the book. Johnson was recently singled out by Giuffre\u2019s brother, Sky Roberts, over his stalling tactics on Grijalva\u2019s swearing-in.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Westminster\u2019s uneasy silence as Prince Andrew scandal growsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember on election night, someone came up to me and said, \u2018I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to swear you in because of those Epstein files,\u2019\u201d Grijalva said in an interview with NPR last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I thought, \u2018oh my gosh, that\u2019s very much a conspiracy theory. Like that\u2019s not going to happen.\u2019 And here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Arizona\u2019s attorney general, Kris Mays, has vowed to sue Johnson for what she is claiming is a breach of Grijalva\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is very clear that no speaker of the House has the right to deny a state the seating of a member of Congress,\u201d Mays said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo speaker has the right to violate the constitution and I have lawyers downstairs right now drafting the litigation. We are not messing around and the people of the state of Arizona hired me to be their lawyer and to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaker Johnson\u2019s survival instincts are razor sharp. But on day 20 of the shutdown, he is beginning to look a little rattled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little over two months have passed since Mike Johnson, Republican leader of the House, appeared on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,15098,11,12,15,16,5,12159,7,8,384,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-135777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-republican-party","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}