Donald Trump said he ‘stood’ with Mike Johnson and did a ‘very good job’ as the two appeared at a joint news conference amid threats from another motion to oust the president.
“He’s doing a very good job under difficult circumstances,” the former president said at Mar-a-Lago.
Johnson’s future is in a precarious position after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump ally, launched a motion to oust him last month.
She didn’t call him back, letting the threat hang over Johnson’s head.
Donald Trump said he ‘stood’ with Mike Johnson and did a ‘very good job’ as the two appeared at a joint news conference amid threats from another motion to oust the president.
“He’s doing about as well as you.” And I’m sure Marjorie understands that and she’s a very good friend of mine. And I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker,” Trump said.
Trump also said he was “studying” Johnson’s expected proposal on Ukraine, putting him at odds with Greene and other House hard-liners who are adamantly opposed to any additional aid in the fight against Russia.
“We’re looking at it right now and we’re talking about it,” he told reporters.
“We’re looking at doing it as a loan rather than just a gift – we’re still giving out gifts in the billions and billions of dollars.”
Johnson’s appearance alongside Trump comes after he helped put the brakes on the president’s efforts to pass a renewed spying tool earlier this week.
The bill was finally passed Friday morning. Johnson struck a deal with Trump and his allies to renew it only for two years instead of five, so they could craft more reforms under a potential Trump administration.
‘KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPY ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! DJT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social before a failed vote on the rules to reauthorize FISA Section 702 earlier this week.
Another part of the law that is not up for reauthorization — Title 1 — was used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 when he was suspected of communications with the Russians. Trump reauthorized FISA in 2018.
Trump, during Friday’s press conference, expressed more moderate opposition to the surveillance tool.
“I’m not a big fan of FISA. But I told everyone I said do what you want. They have a lot of checks and balances in place and I guess it only takes two years now, so payments would be due at the start of my administration.
Section 702 specifically authorizes the U.S. government to monitor foreign nationals suspected of having ties to terrorism who are not on U.S. soil, even if the party on the other end of those communications is a U.S. national in America.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chip Roy introduce new bill to Congress, the SAVE Act
Johnson outraged hard-liners Friday by being the final vote to reject an amendment that would have required intelligence officers to obtain a warrant to review communications involving anyone on U.S. soil.
This way, if Trump wins the election, Congress will be able to reform FISA more thoroughly under his presidency.
The focus is on election legislation aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from voting. It’s already illegal for them to vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Chip Roy introduce the new bill to Congress, the SAVE Act.
Roy, R-Texas, notably was not at Mar-a-Lago for the news conference. He and Trump are not friendly; Roy supported Ron DeSantis for president.
The bill would seek to close any loopholes that allow people to register to vote without proof of U.S. citizenship or a photo ID, require all 50 states to remove any illegal immigrants from their voter rolls and would add penalties of up to five years in prison for election officials. which register non-citizens to vote and require proof of citizenship for those who vote abroad.
“It seems like we all agree with common sense,” Johnson said at the news conference. “There are some Democrats who don’t want to do that. We think this is one of their creations. One of the reasons for this open border, which everyone across the country is asking, why would we allow chaos, why violence? Because they want to turn these people into voters.
Penalties for non-citizen immigrants caught voting include deportation or jail, and they often avoid disclosing personal information anyway for fear of arrest by immigration authorities.
It is, however, possible to vote illegally as an undocumented immigrant. Most ballots require some sort of proof of identity to register to vote, such as a driver’s license. Not all of these proofs of identity require citizenship.
In 2016, during Trump’s first campaign, when he began making allegations about undocumented immigrant voting, the liberal Brennan Center for Justice examined 23.5 million votes in 42 jurisdictions looking for evidence of illegal immigrant voting and found 30 migrant votes.
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