Johnson's 'seismic' failure is also a 'major setback for Trump': analysis

MS NOW producer Steve Benen says House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is racking up the kind of failures his predecessors never had — including his most recent one, who was ousted by his own party.

On Tuesday, Johnson and House GOP leaders tried to propose a rule change that would prevent any lawmaker from threatening President Donald Trump’s tariffs until August. Johnson’s effort failed 214-217 after three Republicans joined all Democrats to destroy it.

The vote is historic for its rarity, but also historic for its frequency under Johnson, said Benen.

“During Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s tenure as House speaker, she literally never lost a rule vote. During former Republican Reps. John Boehner’s and Paul Ryan’s tenures, they also never lost such a vote,” said Benen. “In the last Congress, however, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost three of these votes. And after he was stripped of his gavel, his Republican successor, Mike Johnson, lost four. In the current Congress, Johnson lost one rule vote last year, and then another Tuesday night.”

But the vote is more than just another failure for what is racking up to be one of the House’s least successful speakers. The vote itself was a warning to a president who has — at least until now — wielded complete control of the Republican Party.

Couched into Johnson’s rule was language forbidding House lawmakers from challenging Trump’s tariffs until July 31. Specifically, it stipulated that certain days no longer "constitute a calendar day" for the purpose of terminating national emergencies. This is meaningful because Trump used a national emergency to impose his controversial tariffs.

Politico described the vote as a “seismic” failure, but Benen said “it’s worth appreciating why.”

“First, this was a major setback for Trump, who expected the House chamber that he has effectively controlled for a year to back him up on his controversial trade tariffs agenda,” said Benen. “When that didn’t happen, it offered fresh evidence of an unpopular lame-duck president whose grip on Capitol Hill, even when his own party is in control, is clearly loosening.”

Secondly, Benen said this embarrassing vote “clearly didn’t do the House speaker any favors.”

“Johnson, who has long been seen as a weak figure, has now lost more rule votes than any speaker in generations, and the Louisiana representative’s troubles are only going to get worse,” Benen said. “In the wake of Tuesday night’s failure, Democrats will be able to force a series of uncomfortable votes on the White House’s tariffs, and GOP leaders, already struggling with a vanishingly small majority, won’t be able to stop them.”

Essentially, what Johnson did was ask his own party “to keep surrendering their own legal authority” to a president who is using that power to raise costs for American consumers and businesses. The failure of this vote, said Benen, was a fundamental rejection of an entire partisan mindset plaguing the Republican Party under Trump.

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