Johnson Plays ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ With Trump to Get Wins for GOP

Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t know what to expect.

At the White House Tuesday to celebrate the biggest legislative accomplishment of his tenure, the GOP’s massive new tax law, the Louisiana Republican was summoned to the Oval Office.

As President Donald Trump negotiated a trade deal with Japanese leaders, he wanted the speaker to see it, Johnson recalled Wednesday in an exclusive Bloomberg Government round table.

“What do you think, speaker? What about that?” Johnson recounted, imitating Trump’s voice and hand gestures. “So we did like the good cop, bad cop thing with the Japanese delegation, and we got an extraordinary deal.”

The moment illustrates the personal alliance that has underpinned Johnson’s successes as speaker and given Trump an unfailing ally in Congress. It culminated earlier this month in passage of Republicans’ centerpiece legislation, despite an excruciatingly thin majority in the House.

But while the public side of Johnson’s work leans heavily on hewing to Trump, the more quiet piece of his leadership comes through in a soft-touch style centered on listening and convening his conference, rather than leaning on them, according to Republicans who work closely with him. Those attributes explain how the speaker has lasted longer than many expected, hopes to pass more big legislation, and how he guides a fractious conference that’s always a few defections away from a crisis.

It’s a shift from more domineering speakers of the past, one Johnson said is borne of a new era of social media-driven politics, and the necessity of managing a slim majority.

“I don’t have the luxury of not having patience,” Johnson said. “If you’re a servant leader, then what you’re trying to do, the goal every day, is to foster teamwork and collaboration and understanding.”

His patience faces constant tests.

Epstein, Funding

Lawmakers have a September 30 deadline to fund the government and avert a shutdown, with both parties staking out hardline stances. More immediately, some Republicans are demanding a vote on releasing files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a time bomb for a speaker who has to balance his internal support with his loyalty to Trump.

It’s a familiar bind for Johnson who less than two years ago was an unknown who practically fell into one of the most powerful — but tenuous — jobs in American politics. He’s confronted an endless series of make-or-break tests ever since.

“He is so patient,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). “He listens and then he tries to get folks to reach the natural conclusion.”

He was one of more than a dozen Republicans interviewed about Johnson’s approach. Many cited his qualities as a convener as a critical factor that allowed a GOP conference with a single-digit majority to approve tax cuts, significant cuts to Medicaid, funding for border protection and other Republican priorities.

“You can’t be a guy like me,” with such a narrow margin, Trump said in May, when he visited the Capitol to help Johnson wrangle votes. “You’ve got to be a guy like him — a nice person, he’s very religious.”

Johnson’s success, however, has also tied his majority, and his future as speaker, to a law that has initially polled terribly and which Democrats are wielding against vulnerable Republicans.

In Sync With Trump

Johnson rarely breaks with Trump.

Getty Images

Johnson in some ways can take a softer approach because Trump applies the fear factor. But the speaker has in turn been accused by Democrats and some Republicans of being an extension of the White House, rather than leader of an independent branch of government.

“His strategy is just do whatever the White House tells him,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a frequent Johnson antagonist, said Tuesday.

Johnson, for example, called this month for releasing federal files about Epstein, but quickly reversed himself, arguing to give the administration more time. And on Wednesday he announced a vote to create a subcommittee to re-investigate the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, lending weight to Trump’s effort to re-write that day’s history.

Johnson argued that a close connection with Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), is critical to delivering their goals.

“When the president is working on all cylinders and delivering on his promises to the people, which are the same promises that we made, it behooves us to be working as a team,” he said.

Johnson’s approach to his conference in many ways mirrors the way Senate Republicans say their new leader, Thune, handles his job.

“In terms of relating to their members and taking feedback from their members, I think they’re the same,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).

Even Johnson’s primary political rival, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), said their relationship is “communicative, forward looking, and constructive.”

At times, his attempts to build consensus can frustrate lawmakers who want decisive, faster action.

But for Johnson it has also provided stability and goodwill in a conference so riven by division that in 2023 they toppled their previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), leading to Johnson’s rise.

“He doesn’t lie,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a hard-right Republican who often clashes with GOP leadership.

“He truly has faith and conviction and morals, and I think people give him a little bit more grace,” said Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the fourth-ranking House Republican.

Johnson often brings in competing groups to his office to hash out differences directly.

“It’s a healthy conversation,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), said after a May meeting on the tax bill. “ I would tell you if that was not the case, because I’ve been in meetings where that does not occur.”

Fitzpatrick, however, a swing-district moderate, was one of two Republicans who opposed the bill on final passage.

Massie was the other. He’s now trying to force a vote to require the release of the Epstein files — one of many potential possible headaches ahead for the House GOP.

“I have a big toolbox of totally unmarketable skills,” Johnson said. “But one of them is healing fractures. So that’s what we do every day around here.”