Free Republic

AIN’T EASY BEING GREENE — Turns out it wasn’t a momentary lapse of judgment: DONALD TRUMP yesterday evening defended Speaker MIKE JOHNSON for the second time in as many weeks amid a swirl of speculation about his future atop the House GOP. After spending the day holed up in a Manhattan courtroom (more on that in a second), the former president told Real America’s Voice radio host John Fredericks that Johnson is “trying very hard” and “a very good person.” “Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK?” Trump said, extending Johnson some grace and echoing the speaker’s own...

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will travel to Texas this week, not to make another performative visit to the border he abandoned when he banded with Democrats to pass $95 billion in foreign spending, but to aid a fundraiser for his “endangered” GOP colleague who smeared Republicans opposed to the Ukraine package. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who voted with Johnson last weekend to pass another blank check for Kyiv, pledged on CNN’s Sunday “State of the Union” program that Johnson will keep his speakership despite conservative-led threats of ousting. In return, Johnson will overlook Gonzales’ egregious maligning of conservatives...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is making his first fundraising trip since passing Ukraine aid over the objections of the majority of his party, traveling to Texas to campaign for one of House conservatives’ biggest nemeses. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), days after joining Democrats in promising to save Johnson’s job, will host Johnson for a series of fundraising events on Tuesday. The events are expected to rake in around $300,000 for Gonzales’s reelection bid. Gonzales has played a significant role in House Republicans’ leftward swing, undermining conservatives and, at times, the House Republican Conference agenda despite Republicans ostensibly holding the majority....