You couldn’t tell by watching him these days but Mike Johnson was a constitutional lawyer back in Louisiana before he forgot all they tried to teach him at Louisiana State University Law School and became speaker of the House and President Donald Trump’s puppet.
He should have been the first and loudest to object to the administration’s attempts to rob the Congress of its Article I constitutional power but instead he rushed to raise the white flag and surrender the legislative branch’s authority to the president and his megalomaniacal billionaire sidekick who was neither elected nor confirmed by the Senate.
This is not a partisan issue. It shouldn’t matter whether you share Trump’s goals of reshaping the federal government by eliminating agencies, firing thousands, and slashing spending – only that you recognize the constitutional responsibility of the people’s elected representatives in the separate but equal legislative branch. It’s the difference between a democracy and a monarchy.
Article III is also coming under fire from the White House as federal judges are blocking some of Trump’s executive orders and firings. It set off a chain reaction seemingly intended to set the stage to defy judicial orders.
Vice President JD Vance, a Yale law grad, declared “Judges aren’t allowed to control” the president’s power and co-president Elon Musk called for a “wave of judicial impeachments.”
Trump said he wanted “to look at the judges” and his press secretary called the court orders “abuse of the rule of law.” Speaker Johnson said: “The courts should take a step back.” And Trump’s acolytes in Congress began drafting articles of impeachment for judges standing in the president’s way.
On Monday, Trump went to the Supreme Court, arguing he has “unrestricted power” to run the government without court or other interference.
The filing is consistent with the “unitary executive” approach laid out in the far-right Project 2025, giving presidents the power to defy and usurp Congress. He expects a sympathetic decision from the same court that last summer voted 6-3 to expand presidential immunity.
Dozens of suits have been filed in federal courts challenging Trump’s unilateral actions, from changing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, to firing agency watchdogs, to giving Musk and his team unprecedented access to government secrets.
Some Republicans in Congress privately grumble to reporters about the Trump-Musk heavy-handed power grab but few, if any, have the courage to speak on the record.
So far, they’re concealing any resentment toward an unelected billionaire who brags about how his “Department of Grievance Enforcement” (DOGE) has arrogated their jobs by cutting spending and eliminating departments they authorized by law.
After all, they know he has threatened to finance primary opponents for those who may wander off the reservation. These politicians know their first responsibility is to get reelected; all else is commentary.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) says he is “delighted” and “supportive” of everything Musk is doing, and Johnson is “wholeheartedly” on board.
Johnson may be the worst House Speaker in history
JOHNSON MAY go down as the worst speaker in history. He acts more like a White House junior staffer than the person second in line to the presidency and the third highest elected official in Washington.
No speaker has ever been so willing, even anxious, to surrender legislative power to the executive. He seems to have forgotten all he learned at LSU about separation of powers and constitutional responsibility.
Under Johnson, the House GOP has become a bunch of bobbleheads. The speaker accepts on faith that Trump will be “a good steward of taxpayer dollars.” That’s the convicted felon and habitual liar who spends tens of millions of tax dollars just so he can fly – at $3,000/minute on Air Force 1 – to one of his golf courses for 18 holes of mulligans where he overcharges the Secret Service to rent his golf carts so they can protect him. He made some 300 such trips during his first term and he’s on pace to match that.
Republicans may quibble with each other over the budget, deficits, and big spending bills but the differences are ultimately irrelevant; they’ll give Trump what he wants.
A top Trump priority is extending and expanding his deficit-busting 2017 tax cuts favoring the wealthy. Don’t look for his promised end to taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits anytime soon. The major dispute will be whether he gets what he wants in “one big, beautiful bill” or it is split in two, as the Senate prefers.
Musk, the world’s richest man, holds billions of dollars in government contracts and gets richer off them by the day. Trump vouched that Musk would do the right thing and avoid conflicts of interest, and Speaker Johnson meekly said there is no need for oversight.
The House has set up a subcommittee to oversee Musk’s operation, but it is chaired by right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump enthusiast and expert on Jewish space lasers. It is doubtful she, or anyone, would have the temerity to try to subpoena the co-president to testify or that he would even show up. More likely, she will reinvestigate Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The billionaire and his crew have access to records that he has no statutory authority to see, and no one really knows what Trump has agreed to. They’ve been given top-secret clearances, the White House said, but there is no indication anyone went through the usual full FBI vetting, or if it was just done by the stroke of a presidential sharpie. Nor has Musk been asked to divest himself from any of his companies doing business with the federal government.
Just as Trump told the Supreme Court this week he has “unrestricted power,” so too thinks the man who spent nearly $300 million to help elect this president. Senators wavering on confirming some of Trump’s more controversial nominations have reportedly been intimidated by thinly veiled threats of well-financed primary opponents. How many in the Cabinet owe their jobs to Musk’s intervention?
Trump has picked more than the usual controversial (read: highly unqualified) nominees – like Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Health and Human Services secretary, Pam Bondi as attorney general, and revenge-seeking Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Elections have consequences and each president has the right to choose his own team and set his own policies.
What puzzles me is whether this is the best America, or the Republican party has to offer. Don’t the American people deserve better?
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.