House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) backed out of an event with Donald Trump on Friday as Congress scrambled to pass a spending bill to stop a government shutdown.
Johnson had been scheduled to appear at a Turning Point USA event Friday with Trump and Tucker Carlson, but Johnson's plans were changed by the spending fight, which has placed Johnson's job in jeopardy.
After three days of legislative drama, Johnson passed a bill Friday to keep the government open - but the bill importantly did not include Trump's demands to raise the debt limit.
Earlier in the week, Trump had killed Johnson's first spending bill, a bloated 1,500-page compromise with Democrats that sparked ire from the right while raising doubts about Johnson's future. Trump urged Johnson to get a better deal, which Trump said must include a suspension of the debt limit.
Trump wants the debt limit resolved now, rather than later, as it could give Democrats future leverage during Trump's first months back in office.
Throughout the week, Trump made it clear that he would prefer to shut down the government, arguing President Biden would get the blame, rather than compromise on a bad deal with Democrats.
But the bill that Johnson blessed hours before midnight Friday would keep the government open, without satisfying Trump's debt limit demands.
Trump gave his seal of approval Thursday to a second version of the bill, which would have suspended the debt limit until January 2027. But Democrats and 38 House Republicans rejected the legislation, defying Trump.
Many of the Republicans who voted "no" on Trump's bill were hard-right deficit hawks, like Chip Roy (R-Tx.), who have long caused headaches for Johnson and who triggered the removal of his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, over similar spending disputes.
The final deal passed 366-34 and funds the government until March, with $100 billion in disaster aid for hurricane victims and $10 billion for farmers. While smaller than Johnson's original bill, it does not include the debt limit suspension that Trump wanted.
Johnson's handling of the spending battle has damaged his standing among Republicans and Trump, who appeared to send a warning to the embattled Speaker Thursday.
"If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker," Trump told Fox News Digital.
Real Clear Politics’ Philip Wegmann reported Thursday that Johnson backed out of an appearance at Turning Point USA's AmFest in Arizona, where Trump is giving the headliner speech on Sunday.
With Johnson now defying Trump's wishes in the open, the president-elect could turn on the Speaker, who he has long supported, ahead of Johnson's January 3 re-election vote.
After the spending deal passed Friday, Johnson claimed that he was in touch with Trump and that he approved of the outcome.
"He knew exactly what we were doing and why," Johnson said. "I think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well."
