Speaker Johnson’s ever-growing headaches: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, our Capitol Hill team explains why life has been difficult for Speaker Mike Johnson as of late. Plus, Jonathan Allen examines how President Donald Trump is planning to address the public’s economic anxieties.

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— Adam Wollner

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Speaker Johnson’s ever-growing headaches

By Scott Wong, Melanie Zanona and Kyle Stewart

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is losing control of the House floor.

He suffered a bruising defeat before Thanksgiving when Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and a trio of GOP women defied Johnson and his top lieutenants and teamed with Democrats to force a near-unanimous vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files to the public.

Other Republicans are now turning to that same playbook to go over the speaker’s head.

This week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a discharge petition in a bid to bypass Johnson and force a vote on a bipartisan bill that would ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks. Nine other Republicans have joined Luna and signed the petition, along with six Democrats.

That’s a far cry from the 218 signatures needed to go around the speaker and force a floor vote. But the signatures are notable; it was once unheard of for members of the majority to use discharge petitions against their own leadership.

Moderate Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., is threatening to file his own discharge petition to impose “crushing” U.S. sanctions on Russia as Trump’s proposed peace deal to end the Ukraine war appears to be faltering. And he’s considering another one to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies unless leaders act before the Dec. 31 deadline.

“We’re not afraid to use that option,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not a tool of the minority — it’s a tool of the rank and file.”

On Wednesday, Johnson’s team abruptly yanked the SCORE Act — which would create federal standards for compensating student-athletes — off the House floor amid opposition from a bloc of conservative Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. It was their most important bill of the week.

On top of that, Johnson has been contending with rank-and-file members forcing votes to censure other colleagues, with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., even targeting a fellow Republican, Rep. Cory Mills of Florida.

Mace is part of a group of high-profile female lawmakers — including Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — who’ve been slinging arrows at Johnson.

Many of Johnson’s headaches stem from the fact that he is presiding over one of the smallest majorities in history. Since he swore in Tennessee Republican Matt Van Epps on Thursday morning, Republicans have a 220-213 edge over the Democrats, meaning Johnson can afford only three GOP defections on any bill he brings to the floor.

Read more →

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Trump plans a trip to battleground Pennsylvania amid growing economic concerns

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

For months, many Americans have been sending a loud and clear message: The economy is not what President Donald Trump promised — prices and interest rates are too high; good jobs are too hard to find.

It’s what they’ve told their members of Congress, journalists and pollsters: An October NBC News poll found nearly two-thirds of voters said they believed Trump was falling short of their expectations on the cost of living and the economy. It’s what they’ve said at the ballot box, as the electorate shifted noticeably toward Democrats in gubernatorial races last month and a Tennessee special election for a U.S. House seat on Tuesday.

That message appears to have reached the White House, where aides are making plans for Trump to visit northeast Pennsylvania next week to explain how he believes his policies are making life in America more affordable.

That may not be a cure-all for the ills of the U.S. economy, but it’s an acknowledgment of the problem’s existence. The location is noteworthy because Pennsylvania is not only the biggest of the swing states that helped Trump win the presidency twice and contributed to his defeat in 2020, but also because it is a state where four House Republicans are in danger of losing their seats in next year’s midterms, according to the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

Trump can say affordability is a Democratic “hoax,” “con job” and “scam” all he wants, but the real talking will be done by his feet as he travels to Pennsylvania.

It’s unlikely that he will aggressively reverse course from his current policies — presidents tend to believe their messaging needs more fine-tuning than their ideology. But for vulnerable Republicans — the relative handful of lawmakers whose fates will determine which party controls the House for the final two years of his term — the mere concession that his sales job isn’t doing the trick will be taken as a positive sign.

Having voted in lockstep with Trump’s agenda, most of them will sink or swim on his back. If he underestimates the rise of the tide, it will likely be the former.

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Owen Auston-Babcock.

If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

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