Johnson to Join Trump at Mar-a-Lago for ‘Election Integrity’ Announcement
U.S. World Business Arts Lifestyle Opinion Audio Games Cooking Wirecutter The Athletic You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. The meeting comes at an awkward moment in the relationship between the speaker and the former president, who […]
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The meeting comes at an awkward moment in the relationship between the speaker and the former president, who are at cross purposes on an intelligence bill and Ukraine.
Speaker Mike Johnson plans on Friday to join former President Donald J. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to make what he called a “major announcement on election integrity.”
It was not immediately clear what the pair were planning to discuss at their joint appearance, though Mr. Trump has continued to insist falsely that he was the true winner of the 2020 election and groundlessly accuse Democrats of attempting to interfere in the 2024 contest.
Their first public event together since Mr. Johnson was elected to the top job in the House last fall comes at an awkward moment in their relationship.
The embattled speaker is facing a threat for his ouster from one of Mr. Trump’s top loyalists in Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican. And even as Mr. Johnson has worked to show enthusiastic support for Mr. Trump, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee is stoking G.O.P. divisions and undermining the speaker’s legislative agenda in Congress.
The joint billing will come two days after Mr. Trump weighed in against legislation Mr. Johnson put forward to extend an expiring warrantless surveillance law that national security officials say is crucial to fighting terrorism and gathering intelligence. Mr. Trump urged lawmakers to “kill” the law undergirding the program, and ultraconservatives in the House banded together to block it from coming to the House floor in an embarrassing defeat for Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Johnson also is agonizing over how and when to bring to the floor a bill to send a fresh infusion of American military assistance to Ukraine — a move Mr. Trump has long opposed. (Mr. Trump has said it is “stupid” for the United States to offer foreign aid to countries instead of loans.)
