Mike John­son shores up rela­tion­ship with Trump as ouster threat looms

Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA) is work­ing to stay in the good graces of for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump as he attempts to defuse a pos­si­ble rebel­lion by his right flank in the House.
Trump has repeat­ed­ly voiced sup­port for John­son as hard-lin­ers, upset by a series of deals John­son cut in the last month, weigh whether to attempt his ouster as speak­er.
Democ­rats have offered to save John­son should House rebels pull the trig­ger on a no-con­fi­dence vote, large­ly out of grat­i­tude that he ush­ered Ukraine aid, crit­i­cal to Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s for­eign pol­i­cy agen­da, through the House. But John­son wants to avoid the messy spec­ta­cle alto­geth­er and has turned to his party’s stan­dard-bear­er to keep Repub­li­cans in line.
The stark­est exam­ple of that out­reach was his trip to Mar-a-Lago ear­li­er this month, a vis­it osten­si­bly about elec­tion integri­ty but that came as Rep. Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene (R‑GA) threat­ened to fol­low through with the removal vote.
Trump gave John­son his pub­lic sup­port …