President-elect Donald Trump has loomed large over House Republicans this year. Though the GOP has blamed any intraparty friction on the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, Trump is already giving a preview as to how he will dominate Congress in 2025.
Over the last year, House Republican leadership under Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has needed to balance not only the wishes of their own members but also the commands from the president-elect. Combined with a razor-thin majority, this has made passing GOP-approved legislation along party lines difficult and at times impossible.
Earlier this month, House GOP lawmakers got a taste of what 2025 will look like after Trump shot down a bipartisan spending deal just days before a government shutdown. This sent leaders back to the drawing board, leaving members unsure when they would leave town and government employees worried they would not get paid before the holiday season.
Several other pieces of legislation had to be reshaped or scrapped completely due to Trump’s disapproval, all while setting Johnson up for a difficult next year if he can hold onto the speaker’s gavel — and Trump’s approval.
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1. Trump deals winning and losing hands for continuing resolutions
A thousand-page spending bill hit a dead end Dec. 18 after both Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance came out against the deal. Businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have inserted themselves into House politics since becoming the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, also called for the bill to be killed.
The original continuing resolution was constructed in a bipartisan manner, with Johnson and other House Republican leaders pitching the spending deal as a win for the GOP. It originally extended current government funding levels until March 14, 2025, and included an extra $110.4 billion supplemental package for disaster relief and farmers’ economic assistance.
However, a large number of Republicans revolted after noting a significant amount of additional spending and unrelated provisions shoved into the package. The final nail in the coffin came from Vance and Trump, who called for a clean continuing resolution and told Johnson to drop all provisions that were negotiated with Democrats.
“Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried,” Trump said in a Truth Social post of any GOP lawmaker who voted for the bill. “Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.”
A second spending deal was unveiled, specifically crafted to get GOP members on board, as well as win the approval of Trump. It still extended funding to March 14 and kept the $110 billion for disaster aid and farmers, but it included language to push the debt limit fight off for another two years — relieving Trump of having to address it at the start of his second term. However, it failed on the House floor on Dec. 19, 174-235, and put Johnson in a tight spot with support for his speakership come next year.
A third and final CR was dropped the afternoon of Dec. 20, with the only difference to Thursday’s being the debt limit language. It passed on Friday night with a majority of the GOP conference and all but one Democrat, who voted present.
Last week’s spending deal is not the first in which Trump got involved. In September, Trump pushed for a six-month government funding plan that included the SAVE Act, a bill targeting noncitizen funding. He ramped up pressure for Republicans to reject any bill that did not include the SAVE Act.
“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO “STUFF” VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN – CLOSE IT DOWN!!!” Trump said on Truth Social ahead of the September vote.
That bill ultimately passed and extended funding until the Dec. 20 deadline — but without the SAVE Act, after it failed to pass on the House floor.
House Republicans could continue to face additional struggles when it comes to funding despite gaining a trifecta in January. Republicans were unable to pass all 12 appropriations bills, even with a majority, the last two years. With a virtually nonexistent one coming up in 2025, Johnson will likely face even more hurdles when it comes to passing continuing resolutions in the future.
2. Key provision in foreign surveillance bill faced Trump opposition
In April, Trump urged Republicans to vote against reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and used a personal anecdote to do so.
“KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!” Trump wrote in a post, suggesting that the government misused FISA to surveil one of his 2016 campaign aides. This has been a contested claim, as the accusations occurred through a separate provision of the surveillance bill unaffected by Section 702.
The original FISA deal faced several failed attempts on the House floor after Trump’s post, when 19 Republicans defected and sunk a procedural rule to advance the legislation.
While many of those 19 had already decided to oppose the legislation before Trump’s outburst, it signaled Trump’s enormous sway with the party and his supporters as some of Johnson’s allies began to reconsider their stance.
The measure eventually passed, but Trump joined many other Republicans who were displeased the legislation did not include warrant requirements for federal agencies to search U.S. citizens’ data. Johnson’s vote against the requirements preempted the speaker’s visit to Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
The visit was as much a campaign promotion for Trump as it was a Hail Mary for Johnson, who was facing a motion to vacate over yet another spending deal and the renewal of the key federal surveillance tool.
3. Trump sinks Senate border deal due to foreign aid provisions
Trump’s influence hit the hardest in February after he demanded congressional Republicans reject anything other than a “perfect deal” on the border so he could use immigration reform as the centerpiece of his reelection campaign.
The $118 billion bipartisan Senate border deal — led for months by top GOP negotiator Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), top Democratic negotiator Chris Murphy (D-CT), and others — included additional funding for Ukraine and Israel, as well as humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza who were affected by the Hamas-Israel war.
However, House Republicans called the deal “dead on arrival” in the House, especially after Trump called for an “all or nothing” approach to the bill.
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” Trump wrote in February.
Lankford had pushed back on the president-elect and his fellow Republican senators, arguing it was the best-case scenario with a Democratic president and Senate.
“This is a moment to solve as many things as we can and then keep working on the next thing,” Lankford said at the time.
However, Senate Republicans effectively sunk the border bill in February and officially killed the bill in a vote in May. The border bill’s foreign aid components eventualy went on to pass as its own package.
4. Trump goes against supporters and vocalizes support for Johnson
In a rare moment of solidarity, Trump took Johnson’s side during one of the various attempts to vacate the speakership this year from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
One of Trump’s staunchest supporters, Greene threatened to remove Johnson as speaker over foreign aid deals and the FISA vote. However, Trump spoke up in defense of Johnson, arguing he held up well under pressure given the razor-thin majority he operated under.
“Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK?” Trump said in a radio interview in April. “It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he’s a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO when I said NATO has to pay up. … I think he’s trying very hard.”
Trump had backed Johnson and leadership’s foreign aid deal to send money to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel that turned a portion of the aid into a loan. After the foreign aid package passed, eyes turned to Greene to see whether she would move forward with the motion to vacate.
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The president-elect continued to offer words of encouragement to Johnson in front of the whole conference, particularly when he met with House Republicans shortly after winning the 2024 election. Trump officially endorsed Johnson as speaker, putting him at odds with some of his main loyalists like Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
However, whether Trump gets involved in Johnson’s future remains to be seen. Despite avoiding the Dec. 20 shutdown, many House Republicans have indicated privately or publicly that they wouldn’t support Johnson to hold the speaker’s gavel again, or that they are “now undecided” as to who should remain in leadership.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
