Speaker Mike Johnson in his darkest hour

Mike Johnson is living his darkest hour as speaker of the House of Representatives. While it's not a new situation for him to receive friendly fire from members of his party, especially hard-liners like the Freedom Caucus, every time he has struck a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown, he had always had the support of Donald Trump... until now. The president-elect announcing he is "totally against" Johnson's bill has been a real blow to the speaker, and more and more voices within the GOP are calling for his resignation.

Much of Trump's team, especially those in charge of reducing the cost of government, such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, openly charged against the proposal of the Republican leader in Congress, describing it as a stab at Donald Trump's economic policy and commitments. In the face of the controversy, Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader in the House, announced that they were scrapping the proposal, even though they could have tried to move it forward with the votes of the Democratic caucus.

So far, the support of Donald Trump, who came to show his support after meeting with Johnson at Mar-a-Lago after the threat of a government shutdown in late September, has been the shield for the House speaker. It didn't serve to let the criticism subside, nor did it get a majority of representatives to vote in favor of the initiative, but it allowed the speaker to keep the gavel to date.

Is Johnson's Matt Gaetz wanted?

With Trump's words, criticism swelled, with the president-elect's close associates calling for Johnson to resign. Some analysts are even calling for repeat of Matt Gaetz's motion to remove the speaker, as the Florida representative did with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

'Vote NO. Miss Christmas if we must'

Many representatives, such as Chip Roy, who voted against the September bill, stressed that they warned previously of this exact situation: Christmas Eve would come, and a mega-bill would be introduced (Johnson's proposal is 1,500 pages) to pressure lawmakers to pass it quickly so they could go home for the holiday season. Roy noted on X that he is willing to fight, even if it costs him Christmas.

Johnson meets with Vance and prepares a plan B

Johnson, who noted in several media appearances that he "doesn't like" the continuing resolution as it stands either, assured that he is "compelled" to support it. According to Politico, the speaker is preparing a plan B with a significant reduction in costs and initiatives most criticized by his fellow party members. On Wednesday, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance met with him to address the crisis. The talk was "productive," according to Trump's running mate. However, he avoided answering whether he backs Johnson's re-election as House speaker.