Former President Donald Trump received an endorsement from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday, extending a streak of good relations between the two Republicans.
Johnson declared his support for Trump during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” upon being pressed by co-host Joe Kernen, who noted that the speaker is widely known as a “Trump ally” but had not publicly embraced a particular candidate in the 2024 White House race as far as he knew.
“I have endorsed him wholeheartedly,” Johnson replied.
Mike Johnson endorses Trump for president. pic.twitter.com/ZAezHkAMYC
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 14, 2023
“Look, I was one of the closest allies that President Trump had in Congress,” the speaker added. “He had a phenomenal first term. Those first two years, as you all know, we brought about the greatest economic numbers in the history of the world, not just the country, because his policies worked and I’m all in for President Trump.”
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Johnson, a constitutional lawyer-turned-politician, joined Trump’s impeachment defense team and helped in the effort to challenge the results of the 2020 election. Though Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) initially got Trump’s endorsement in the race for speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from the role last month, the former president encouraged members to support Johnson when it became clear he was the “leading candidate.” Johnson won the gavel in a 220-209 vote with the GOP conference rallying behind him.
Trump is running again for a second term after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020. National polls show Trump as the clear frontrunner in a wide but shrinking GOP field, while surveys examining a hypothetical general election rematch against Biden have been closer.
Other major GOP candidates still in the race for the presidency include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Candidates who have dropped out include former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
“I expect he’ll be our nominee,” Johnson said of Trump on Tuesday. “Yeah. And he’s gonna win it and we have to make Biden a one-term president.”