ImmediatePolitics in Congress Towards Trump

 

1 big thing: 🚨 Johnson hugs Trump

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Speaker Mike Johnson is carefully avoiding tying himself to a position on government funding that President-elect Trump could publicly denounce or destroy.

Why it matters: Johnson's majority for the GOP in the House will be tiny (as small as a 2-vote margin) — and that's if Trump stops hiring House lawmakers for administration jobs. 

• Government funding expires in December. GOP leaders preferred a funding stopgap to March. But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is floating funding through September.
• If Trump does keep raiding the House, many of those seats will be filled by the fall. The reinforcements might not be there by March. 
• Johnson doesn't expect any other House members to get Trump gigs, he said this morning.

Between the lines: Johnson will have zero room for error in January's speaker race.

• Scalise — who broke the ice on September vs. March in comments this morning to Punchbowl News — can take that heat and be fine. He only has to win a majority vote tomorrow to keep his gig. 

✈️ That leaves Johnson in the position of figuring out what Trump wants, or at least what he'll accept.

• Trump's "preference" on timing for government funding will "carry a lot of weight," Johnson told reporters this morning.
• Johnson will meet Trump tomorrow in the Capitol, then be with Trump in Florida on Thursday and over the weekend.

The bottom line: Any Johnson deal will be with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who's getting his last real crack at government funding for at least two years. 

• He's unlikely to accept a clean funding extension when he's still got leverage, a source familiar with Schumer's thinking told us.
• Look for Democrats to demand a price — such as extra cash for FEMA's disaster relief fund — in exchange for a Johnson-friendly deal. 

— Juliegrace Brufke and Stephen Neukam

Axios