I think Mike Johnson is one of the most loathsome human beings on the planet, and I have license to say anything I want about him. That’s because, as a gay man, Johnson has attacked me in more ways than I can count.
But this isn’t about my dislike of Johnson. Putting personal feelings aside, I can state that Johnson will go down as the worst Speaker of the House in American history for the damage he’s done to this country. Guaranteed.
And, given the way the tide is turning in Congress, Johnson may be history soon enough.
From the moment Johnson grabbed the gavel, he made a choice, and that choice was Donald Trump, every single time, without hesitation, dignity or the Christian spine he endlessly claims to possess.
What Johnson delivered was far from leadership. It was a masterclass in submission. His boot-licking devotion to Donald Trump became institutionalized, so complete and abject it strains belief that this man once took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
And now it’s coming back to bite him. Hard.
The war powers vote the House had to cancel before the Memorial Day break. The White House ballroom $1 billion boondoggle stalling out like a dilapidated Chevy on the House floor. And perhaps most grotesquely, Trump’s DOJ slush fund - $1.776 billion earmarked to compensate people Trump’s administration deemed wronged under Biden, including January 6 insurrectionists - is beginning to stink even to Republicans.
That’s because people like Michael Lindell of MyPillow infamy, Rudy Giuliani, and others who spent years lying through courtrooms and losing defamation judgments are ostensibly eligible for taxpayer dollars.
All while the rest of America struggles to fill up their tanks.
Mike Johnson is now the point man trying to force the war powers, ballroom and slush fund legislation through the House against a growing tide. Ever Trump’s loyal toady, he fled town in a hurry to avoid the embarrassing defeat of the war bill for starters.
If you recall, Johnson has disappeared before. He deliberately kept the chamber out of session to avoid seating newly elected Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva in order to block her from becoming the crucial 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition.
So to bottom-line this, Johnson wants Trump to retain authority to wipe out a civilization without oversight while shielding him from scrutiny over Epstein.
This is what the self-proclaimed man of God chooses to champion.
Johnson is now trapped in a conundrum of his own making. As more Republicans begin pushing back, he must either address his caucus’s concerns or once again kowtow to Trump.
Either way, Johnson loses. Some pointed to the fact that Johnson skipped a White House meeting this week as a sign of defiance on his part. Maybe, but I doubt it because Trump removed Johnson’s spine two years ago. Was it a signal to placate the growing resentment in his caucus? Perhaps, but he always finds a way back to Donald.
Some House Republicans are waking up, embarrassingly late, to the reality that they surrendered Congress as a co-equal branch of government on January 20, 2025, and the country has been paying for it ever since.
And they did it with Johnson leading the way.
This change of heart, if you can call it that since the GOP has no heart, is driven less by principle than by panic. These members are looking at purple, swing and even red-district polling and freaking out. Trump’s poll numbers are sinking fast.
So are theirs, through guilt by association. That’s what happens to members of Congress who rubber-stamp Trump’s abhorrent legislation.
The midterms are coming, the biennial march toward self-preservation.
What does this mean for the wimpy Johnson? It means the votes he bent over backwards to deliver for Trump are now at risk of collapse. And when these measures fail on the House floor, because they will, Trump will need someone to blame.
And Johnson, having turned himself into a political Depends for Trump’s excesses while surrendering every shred of independence, has no leverage, and no base of his own. He is the perfect scapegoat, compliant enough to enable everything, weak enough to take the fall for it.
Trump will tear him apart just like he did the East Wing of the White House.
Johnson’s phony Christian faith won’t save him from the demonic Trump.
Johnson championed legislation that hurt vulnerable people, stripped protections from the poor and rewarded the powerful. He never once found the courage to say publicly and without equivocation that these things were wrong.
When our children and grandchildren read about this period in history, they’ll notice two recurring names. They will learn how America slid toward autocracy, how its global credibility eroded, how its institutions were destroyed by one man’s ego and the servility of those supposed to check him.
When that history is written, Mike Johnson’s name will be glued to Trump’s.
He will be remembered as a small man, small in so many ways, who had every opportunity to stand up and chose instead to kneel at Trump’s swollen legs.
Kissing up to Donald Trump has never ended well. The list of those tossed overboard is too long to recount here. Mike Johnson’s name will soon join the ranks of the meek and mindless.
The only remaining question is whether Johnson leaves on his own terms in January 2027 or gets shown the door sooner, by Trump losing patience, House Republicans finally reaching their limit, or voters in November 2026 who have had enough.
Either way, Mike Johnson will be relegated to the trash bin of history, where hollow sermons and moral cowardice decompose together.