Decryption | The worst job in Washington

(New York) Mike Johnson works so hard that he sold his house in Shreveport, Louisiana, to no longer have to spend time maintaining it. The little meals prepared at home? It was a luxury he had to give up, also due to lack of time.

“I haven’t taken a single day of vacation in two years. I literally haven’t taken a single day off in two years,” lamented the overworked man. “Last Christmas, I was answering calls from members telling me about their problems. This position requires total investment from those who occupy it and, by extension, their families. »

And added, in the same tone: “Even when you think you have finished your work day and you put down your phone, it can be 11:30 p.m. and “dring dring”, a new crisis arises. In a way, you’re a bit like a firefighter. »

In theory, this man who complains like this is one of the most powerful in Washington, where he is second in the order of presidential succession as speaker of the House of Representatives. In practice, it’s a different story.

Joke or reality?

“We have this joke that I’m not really a Speaker of the House,” Mike Johnson said during a recent episode of the podcast hosted by Katie Miller, wife of presidential adviser Stephen Miller, during which the Speaker of the House opened up like a book.

Critics of Mike Johnson believe that this is not a joke, but reality. They believe that the successor of Kevin McCarthy, victim of a mutiny in October 2023, renounced his powers in order to slavishly fulfill the desires of Donald Trump.

However, less than a year before the mid-term elections, the President of the House is attacked by elected officials from his own party, some of whom even go so far as to predict that he will lose his position to a Democrat even before voters go to the polls in November 2026.

Because the decision of Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to leave her seat before the end of her term could snowball. Other elected officials from his party could indeed imitate him, jeopardizing the slim majority of three seats that the Republicans currently enjoy in the lower house of Congress.

“A powder keg”

“Members know they will go into opposition after the midterm elections. More early and explosive resignations are to come. It’s a powder magazine. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be removed from office and they will lose the majority before the end of this term,” a Republican representative recently told the Punchbowl news site on condition of anonymity.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace could be next to go before her term ends. On Monday, she signed a column in the New York Times where she in turn criticized Mike Johnson.

“President Mike Johnson is better than his predecessor. But the frustrations of ordinary representatives are exacerbated by the fact that certain people or groups remain marginalized within the party and have little say. Women will never be taken seriously until leaders decide to take us seriously, and I’m not holding my breath anymore,” she wrote.

This allusion to women is not insignificant. The harshest Republican criticism of Mike Johnson comes from female representatives.

“A political novice”

In addition to Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene, representatives Anna Paulina Luna (Florida) and Elise Stefanik (New York) also mistreated the Speaker of the House, a follower of patriarchal evangelical Christianity.

“He certainly would not have the votes to be elected Speaker of the House if a secret ballot took place tomorrow,” Rep. Stefanik said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal at the beginning of December. “I think the majority of Republicans would vote for new leadership. This is a widely held feeling. »

He added: “While Kevin McCarthy was a political animal, Mike Johnson is a political novice and it shows, with House Republicans posting mediocre results for the first time since the Trump era. »

It is therefore in this flawed context that Mike Johnson must try to prevent any exodus of Republican representatives before the end of their mandate. We can thus better understand why he gives the impression of having the worst job in Washington.

We can also better understand why he could fail and become the second Speaker of the House to lose his gavel in the middle of a session.