Trump backs Johnson amid calls for his ouster over shutdown debacle

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy President-elect Donald Trump isn’t joining calls from some in his party to replace House Speaker Mike Johnson at the start of the next Congress after the Louisiana Republican tanked a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown, apparently on orders from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. The current speaker has become a target for the rightmost flank of his conference after he and congressional leaders from both parties announced a deal to pass a disaster relief bill, the annual farm bill containing billions of dollars of agricultural subsidies, and other bipartisan priorities in a combined package that would have extended government funding at last year’s fiscal year levels through the end of March. Donald Trump says House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job is ‘safe’ for now Privately, some members of his party have suggested that the end result of this debacle is that they will back others for Johnson’s post when the next congress convenes on January 3 of next year. Elon Musk Demands Government Shutdown Until Trump Is Sworn In It’s unclear what specifically Trump would want to see in a government funding bill save for one thing: Language to raise the statutory debt ceiling that could potentially provide leverage for Democrats in the Senate to negotiate for other priorities when the government runs up against that limit next year.