What MTG wants from Mike Johnson

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has named a price for withdrawing her threat to vote on Speaker Mike Johnson’s ouster.

In a nearly two-hour meeting yesterday at Greene’s request to explore potential off-ramps, the MAGA agitator and allied Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) outlined several policy demands they are pursuing before calling off their plans.

According to people familiar with the conversations, these include:

• No further aid for Ukraine;
• A return to the ‘Hastert rule’,‘which means that no legislation shall be brought to a vote without the support of a majority of the majority in the House of Representatives;
• Debunking the Special Prosecutor’s Investigations to former President Donald Trump in the coming credits; And
• Enforcement of the ‘Massie Rule’ whereby government funding is automatically reduced across the board if a replacement agreement is not reached within a certain period.

They meet again today at 12:30 in the hope of finding some relaxation. Spokespeople for Greene and Johnson declined to comment on their discussions, but the speaker struck a conciliatory tone after yesterday’s meeting, sympathizing with Greene and promising to “keep this team together.”
But make no mistake: The pressure on Republican Party unity in an election year is weighing on Greene, who has to contend with irritated Republican colleagues and the skepticism of the party’s undisputed leader, Trump.

Johnson could be in a position to grant at least some of Greene’s requests. Since this Congress is essentially done passing controversial items that are absolutely necessary, like funding the government, raising the debt ceiling, and expanding regulatory authorities, Johnson can probably stick to the Hastert Rule (named after the former, now disgraced speaker Dennis Hastert).

Democrats agreed to a version of the Massie Rule during spending talks with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year — so Johnson could likely go there, too.

On Ukraine, Congress just sent Kiev $60 billion in aid — enough to last all year by most estimates, though Greene may also want to include an expected nine-figure aid authorization in the Pentagon’s annual policy bill that is expected to be adopted later this year.

But debunking special counsel Jack Smith’s Trump investigations could be much trickier. Frontline Republicans have rejected such demands in the past, not to mention Democrats. If Greene expects Johnson to oppose a long-awaited continuation of the resolution in September, it would be a recipe for a federal shutdown just weeks before the election.

The two sides don’t have a deal yet — and may never have one — but it’s clear temperatures are dropping. After all, a handshake solution is in the interests of both parties: it would spare Johnson a risky vote in which he would rely on the Democrats’ largesse to save his gavel.

And for Greene, her relationship with Trump and his inner circle is at stake, we’re told. The former president “couldn’t have been clearer,” a person close to him said last night, signaling he is not interested in more intraparty drama this election season.

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