United States President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed the continued leadership of Mike Johnson in the House of Representatives, in an apparent attempt to limit Republican discord in the new year.

In a post to his online platform Truth Social on Monday, Trump appealed to his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base in rallying support for Johnson, who currently serves as speaker of the House.

“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” Trump wrote.

But the path ahead for Johnson is likely to be a fraught one. On January 3, a new Congress convenes, following November’s general election. And Republicans are gearing up for a tense showdown over who will be voted the next speaker, the highest officer in the House of Representatives.

Johnson is the most likely candidate, as the incumbent speaker. But his role in passing a last-minute budget bill earlier this month revealed fractures in the Republican caucus — and a possible backlash to his leadership.

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A representative from Louisiana known for socially conservative policies, Johnson will need every Republican vote he can muster to hold onto the speaker’s gavel.

When the 119th Congress convenes, Republicans will claim one of the smallest majorities in the House in modern history. They will have 219 House seats out of 435 total, giving them barely more than 50 percent of the chamber’s votes.

Democrats traditionally cast their ballots for a House leader from their own party. As a result, even a handful of Republican holdouts could cost Johnson the speaker’s gavel.

Already, several Republican members of the House have come out in opposition to Johnson’s leadership. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, for instance, has been vocal that he will not cast a vote for the Louisiana representative.

“I will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson,” Massie wrote on social media on December 27. “A weak legislative branch, beholden to the swamp, will not be able to achieve the mandate voters gave Trump and Congress in November.”

Part of the reason for the discord lies with Johnson’s support for the bipartisan budget bill that was ultimately signed into law on December 21, averting a government shutdown over the holiday season.

Several Republicans opposed the measure for failing to rein in spending. Others, including Massie, expressed concern that an early version of the bill contained provisions that went beyond the budget. They called for a “clean” budget bill instead.

And then there was the omission of a key priority Trump himself had advanced. Trump had called on the budget bill to contain language extending or abolishing the debt ceiling, which limits how much the federal government can borrow.

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Traditionally, the federal budget is negotiated separately from the debt ceiling. But on social media, Trump called for debt ceiling negotiations to happen under outgoing President Joe Biden, a Democrat, rather than during his incoming administration.

Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the debt ceiling has been suspended until January 1, 2025.

But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has already warned that the federal government could hit its borrowing limit by the middle of that month, limiting its ability to pay its bills and potentially denting the country’s credit score.

Trump himself is slated to take office for a second term on January 20. He has called the debt ceiling a “guillotine” hanging over his administration.

Ultimately, the Johnson-led budget bill passed without the debt ceiling legislation Trump had demanded.

Such disagreements have cost at least one past speaker his seat. Johnson’s predecessor, former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, likewise oversaw the passage of a bipartisan budget bill that was controversial in the right wing of his party.

That sparked a retaliation against McCarthy’s leadership in October 2023. Members of the Freedom Caucus, a coalition of stalwart conservatives, banded together to oust McCarthy from the speakership in a historic vote — marking the first time a speaker had been removed by a motion to vacate his seat.

But that decision plunged the Republican caucus in the House into weeks of chaos, as party members struggled to find a new leader. Johnson was not the first choice: He was the fourth nominee to be put forward for the position.

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Since then, Johnson has faced a similar effort to jettison him from the speakership.

On Monday, however, Trump sought to distance the Republican Party from that past upheaval. In his social media post, he tried instead to cast Democrats as the party of discord.

“We are the Party of COMMON SENSE, a primary reason that we WON,” Trump wrote.

He then repeated false claims about election fraud, this time focusing on House races in states like California. “ALL WON WITH EASE, CALM, & PROFESSIONALISM.”

For his part, Johnson thanked Trump for his support as he seeks a second full year as speaker.

“Thank you, President Trump! I’m honored and humbled by your support, as always,” Johnson wrote on social media. He also offered his support for Trump’s second-term agenda.

“Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America. The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work!”

The question remains, however, whether Trump’s endorsement will prove decisive in the upcoming vote. Already, Massie has reiterated that Johnson will not receive his vote, no matter what Trump has said.

“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Massie wrote on social media, referencing a previous House speaker Trump backed.

Massie warned Johnson could pave the way for Democrat priorities and further unbridled government spending, as he accused Ryan of doing. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”

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