Failure to oust Speaker 'MAGA Mike' Johnson shows strength and weakness of his alliance with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was Donald Trump who bestowed the “MAGA Mike Johnson” nickname on the House speaker the day he won the gavel.

It is the Republican speaker himself who is proving whether it sticks.

Johnson survived an ouster vote this week by one of Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress, far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, his job secured only after House Democrats turned out in force to put an end to the GOP chaos, for now.

But the oversized role Trump played in propping up Johnson cannot be understated — or relied upon to save the speaker again.

In fact, the indicted former president who has been known to flip his friends into foes warned that while Republicans shouldn’t be voting to remove Johnson, “At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time.”

The outcome puts on display the fragility of the unexpected but strategically beneficial alliance that Trump and Johnson have formed ahead of the November election when both hope to be returned to power — the Republican president in the White House and the loyal foot soldier in Congress.

“Seems like they’re on the same page, and I think that’s great,” said lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who was a key figure in Trump's efforts to challenge the 2020 election.

Johnson has worked diligently to align himself with the former president, the conservative Christian setting aside his once critical views of the presidential contender to present himself as a chief implementer of the Trump Republican Party’s Make America Great Again agenda on Capitol Hill.

Barely six months on the job, since Johnson replaced the ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the new leader has dashed multiple times to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, securing crucial support, including at a glitzy Republican National Committee gala this past weekend.

When Trump invited Johnson to the stage to say a few words, the speaker praised the former president as the “strongman” the country needs in the White House. Trump and Johnson are cordial, according to a person with knowledge of their relationship, and granted anonymity to discuss it.

“He’s doing a great job,” Trump said alongside Johnson after another visit last month, ahead of the House vote to approve a national security package with Ukraine funding that Greene warned would lead to a vote on Johnson's ouster.

In return for his seal of approval, Trump is increasingly able to rely on the speaker’s high-profile standing to legitimize his relentless attacks on the U.S. election process, the judicial system and the multiple criminal cases against him, including the federal indictment for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

“All these cases need to be dropped,” says Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, who as the House speaker is second in the line of presidential succession. “President Trump has done nothing wrong. ... It has to stop.”

Trump is already pre-emptively contesting the 2024 election as potentially rigged before the first ballots are cast, and Johnson, who helped lead legal challenges to Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, is in a powerful position to again question the legitimacy of the outcome.

Asked this week if he believed the 2020 election was legitimate and if he would stand by the new state-certified results this fall, Johnson shook his head in frustration, and demurred. “What we're talking about today is the 2024 election, nobody can go back and relitigate what happened in 2020,” he said.

The joint venture between Trump and Johnson was in clear focus Wednesday ahead of the House action when the speaker, flanked on the Capitol steps by a who’s who of the former president’s advisers, announced new legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans are eligible to vote.

Johnson had promised Trump a voting-citizenship bill during one of the Mar-a-Lago visits, and the unveiling of it alongside Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s hardline immigration policies, and others showed just how embedded the former president’s Make America Great Again movement has become in the House speaker's agenda.

Election experts said there is scant evidence that non-citizens vote in U.S. elections, and past reviews including one pursued by the Trump administration have not produced significant cases of wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, Johnson and the others argued without proof that immigrants are being brought into the U.S. to illegally vote. The legislation can be seen as groundwork for the challenges Trump may pose in the aftermath of the November election.

“If this bill does not become law, then Joe Biden and Democrats will have engineered one of the greatest interferences in any democratic nation in the history of the world,” Miller said outside the Capitol.

Still, the legislative push did not placate Greene, who hours later tried and failed to remove the speaker from office.

Colleagues booed in protest. An overwhelming majority, 359-43, kept Johnson in his job, for now.

“I’m proud of what I did today,” Greene said afterward on the Capitol steps.

It’s the second time in a matter of months that Republicans have worked to oust their own speaker, an unheard of level of party upheaval with a move rarely seen in U.S. history.

Without Democratic help, Johnson would have certainly faced a more dismal outcome. All told, 196 and 163 Democrats voted to table Greene's motion. But 11 Republicans voted to proceed with the effort, more than it took to remove McCarthy last fall, a first in U.S. history.

Democrats have also made clear their help was for this moment alone, and not a promise of an enduring partnership for Johnson’s survival.

“Our decision to stop Marjorie Taylor Greene from plunging the country into further chaos is rooted in our commitment to solve problems,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., after the vote.

“The only thing we ask of our House Republican colleagues is for traditional Republicans to further isolate the extreme MAGA Republican wing of the GOP,” said Jeffries, who is in line to become speaker if Democrats win control of the House in the fall. “We need more common sense and less chaos.”

Asked about a future motion to vacate the speaker, Jeffries said, “Haven’t given it a thought.”

By relying on Democratic backing, Johnson risks inciting more criticism that he is insufficiently loyal to the party.

And the threat still lingers — any single lawmaker can call up the motion to vacate the speaker.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Michelle Price, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters about requiring American citizenship to vote in national elections, as they introduce the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., leaves a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, heads to a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Rep. Good has criticized Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for continuing her push to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his position. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., leaves a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whom she has vowed to remove from his leadership post, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., leaves a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whom she has vowed to remove from his leadership post, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks to reporters after she tried and failed to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference amid threats that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, is threatening to oust Johnson from his leadership post, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MIAMI (AP) — Harrison Bader and Tyrone Taylor each drove in two runs in a four-run first inning, star closer Edwin Díaz was not used in a save situation and the New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 on Sunday for just their second win in seven games.

Brandon Nimmo homered and Francisco Lindor singled twice following a 1-for-27 skid as the Mets rebounded from blowing a four-run, ninth-inning lead on Saturday and avoided a three-game sweep. New York stopped Miami’s four-game winning streak.

“You’re not defined by what you do the day before. You’re defined by how you get up from adversity,” Lindor said. “We wanted this one for sure. I think it’s important to win after a tough loss like that.”

Sean Manaea (3-1) allowed two runs and five hits in five innings. Sean Reid-Foley and Jake Diekman pitched an inning each, and Reed Garrett got his second save by allowing one hit over two innings with four strikeouts in a 34-pitch outing.

Díaz has a 10.80 ERA over his last eight appearances after serving up four homers in 8 1/3 innings. He has blown three of his last four save chances.

“We all believe in him. We all know he’s going to be back,” Garrett said. “Whenever my name’s called, I’ll pitch, but I know as a collective unit we all believe in Edwin and we know what he can do.”

New York (21-25) had dropped five games under .500 on Saturday for the first time since an 0-5 start.

“Not an easy weekend, not the way we expected, but we just have to continue to move forward,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Today was a huge win for us.”

With New York ahead 4-3, Nimmo hit a two-run homer off Anthony Bender in a three-run ninth that included Brett Baty’s RBI single.

“I was just looking for a good pitch in the middle of the plate to drive,” Nimmo said. “I was able to hit that ball — good launch angle — and hit it hard. Found its way out of the ballpark.”

Nimmo returned to the lineup Saturday after missing two games because of a stomach illness.

“I’m coming around,” Nimmo said. “It’s been a little bit of a journey the last three days to get over the sickness. Right now, I’m just trying to get some appetite back. I’m definitely not at 100%. Just trying to battle through it and glad that I was able to help out there at the end and solidify the win.”

Dane Myers hit a two-run homer in the second, and Christian Bethancourt had a solo drive in the seventh against DIekman.

Sixto Sánchez (0-2) allowed four runs and six hits in four innings. He gave up Taylor’s two-out double in the first and Bader’s single.

“He was obviously better second through the fourth inning but he put us in a hole early,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “At this level it’s hard to come back from four runs every single time. He’s not giving his teammates a chance to win.”

Miami recalled right-handed reliever Emmanuel Ramirez from Jacksonville and optioned right-handed reliever Anthony Maldonado to the Triple-A farm team.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mets: DH J.D. Martinez (flu symptoms) didn’t play but was available to pinch hit. Mendoza said Martinez played through the illness the prior two days.

Marlins: INF Tim Anderson (lower back tightness) homered and had three singles in five at-bats during a rehab game with Jacksonville on Saturday, then went 0 for 4 with a walk on Sunday.

UP NEXT

Mets: RHP Tylor Megill (0-1, 2.25) will start the opener of a three-game series at Cleveland on Monday. RHP Ben Lively (2-2, 3.06) will start for the Guardians.

Marlins: LHP Ryan Weathers (2-4, 3.81) is scheduled to start the opener of a three-game home series against Milwaukee on Monday. The Brewers will go with RHP Joe Ross (2-4, 4.61).

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

New York Mets' Sean Manaea delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New York Mets' Brandon Nimmo (9) and Francisco Lindor (12) congratulate each other after they scored on a double by Tyrone Taylor, during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New York Mets center fielder Harrison Bader is unable to catch a ball hit by Miami Marlins' Josh Bell for a double, during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Miami Marlins third base Emmanuel Rivera, right, tags out New York Mets' Harrison Bader as he slides into third base during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New York Mets center fielder Harrison Bader (44) catches a ball hit by Miami Marlins' Josh Bell as both he and left fielder Tyrone Taylor (15) vie for the ball during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New York Mets relief pitcher Reed Garrett, right, and catcher Omar Narvaez celebrate after the Mets beat the Miami Marlins 7-3, during a baseball game, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)