As he seeks to avoid a government shutdown in the first major test of his speakership, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., offered his full-throated endorsement on Tuesday of former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Johnson, in his third week as speaker, has long been a supporter of Trump and was central to a legal effort by members of Congress to support a lawsuit that would invalidate the 2020 election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On Tuesday, he defended Trump for continuing to make false claims about his loss to President Joe Biden.

What You Need To Know

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., offered his full-throated endorsement on Tuesday of former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary

  • Johnson has long been a supporter of Trump and was central to a legal effort by members of Congress to support a lawsuit that would invalidate the 2020 election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

    Trump’s election denialism and attempts to stay in power are the subject of two of his four criminal prosecutions: a federal conspiracy case in Washington and a state-level racketeering case in Georgia

  • Within Johnson’s House Republican conference, 77 members have endorsed Trump for reelection, according to FiveThirtyEight’s endorsement tracker; the next closest 2024 contender is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with five

“I was one of the closest allies that President Trump had in Congress,” Johnson said on CNBC on Tuesday morning. “I'm all in for President Trump. I expect to be our nominee. Yeah. And then he's gonna win it.”

“I worked on the impeachment defense team twice in the House to defend his positions and I know how he thinks and he's convinced that because of all the irregularities and everything else,” he added when pressed on Trump’s frequent and false claims that he won the 2020 election. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020, election officials and judges from both parties and across the country have affirmed.

Trump’s election denialism and attempts to stay in power are the subject of two of his four criminal prosecutions: a federal conspiracy case in Washington and a state-level racketeering case in Georgia. In Georgia, four of the former president’s 18 alleged co-conspirators have pleaded guilty.

“I think this is motivated by political prosecutions and we call it lawfare. That’s what it is. It’s just another way to go after a candidate,” Johnson said, claiming the FBI and the Department of Justice have been weaponized against Trump. 

Despite his legal troubles, including a civil fraud trial in New York threatening his real estate empire, Trump is the far and away frontrunner in the 2024 GOP primary, outpacing his rivals by 40 point margins in national polls and 20 to 30 point margins in the key early primary states. 

Within Johnson’s House Republican conference, 77 members have endorsed Trump for reelection, according to FiveThirtyEight’s endorsement tracker. The next closest 2024 contender is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with five.

“I think when we're voting for president, it can't be about personalities. It's got to be about policies and principles,” Johnson said when asked about Trump’s immigration plans for his next term and his attempt to stay in power during his first term. “And if you want liberty, opportunity and security for more people in the country, you contrast the two policies and the principles of Trump and Biden. It's not even close.”

Trump didn’t endorse Johnson during the chaotic, weekslong process undertaken by House Republicans to elect a new speaker last month, but he did make a “strong suggestion” that they rally behind Johnson after he won a majority in an internal party vote. He was the House GOP’s fourth speaker nominee to replace Kevin McCarthy after the California Republican was ousted by rebellious, far-right members of his own party over an agreement with Democrats on a stopgap funding measure to avoid a government shutdown earlier this fall. 

Now, Johnson is endorsing Trump as he pursues his own, elaborate plan to pass a follow-up stopgap measure and stave off similar opposition to what McCarthy faced. The House was expected to vote on the proposal later Tuesday, but the Republican majority only holds a three-seat margin.

If far-right Republicans defect from party leadership, as many are expected to do, Johnson will need Democratic support. But if Democrats join him, a possibility the caucus was considering as of early Tuesday afternoon, he will face the same criticism about working with the other side that ultimately lead to McCarthy’s ouster.

“What we're doing now is a little bit different than what Kevin was presented with. He was in a jam as well,” Johnson said on CNBC, pledging to end the practice of stopgap funding bills, known as continuing resolutions. next year. “I want all Republicans to vote on this because this is the first step in making real change and the chaos here.”

While Johnson projected optimism, he didn’t definitively say if he believed the first major test of his speakership would go his way.

“With regard to the whip count. I'm not sure yet,” Johnson said on CNBC.

“I’ll let you know in a couple of hours,” Johnson told the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”