Rachel Bade: “After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker Mike Johnson proclaimed to reporters that President-elect Donald Trump was ‘certainly happy about this outcome.’”
“Not by a long shot.”
“Amid the chaos in Washington, I was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called up other confidants afterward. This much became clear to me: Not only is Trump unhappy with the funding deal, he’s unhappy with Johnson, too.”
Playbook: “Trump is backing away from Johnson just at the moment where the speaker most needs the new president’s help. Johnson won’t be able to lose more than four Republican votes on Jan. 3, and it’s impossible to see him mustering that kind of unity without Trump’s vocal backing.”
“His best friend right now? Circumstance. No Republican wants a reprise of last fall’s two-week power vacuum, least of all with the official electoral college tally scheduled for just three days later. No elected speaker means no certification. And it definitely means no progress on reconciliation — forget the one-bill-or-two debate.”
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