Top 4 moments from Speaker Johnson's Axios interview
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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defended President Trump's tariffs, got real about the deadline to get a mega-MAGA bill through Congress and warned Democrats are hungry to impeach Trump for a third time.
Why it matters: Johnson has had to fight again and again to keep his power over the Republican Conference. He's headed for another high-stakes battle to jam through the president's agenda with slim margins.
Here are the top moments from the Axios News Shaper interview with the speaker:
Tariffs
If Trump's tariff actions reached a point where it encroached on the constitutional power of Congress, Johnson said he'd call Trump first before stepping in.
- "I think the executive has a broad array of authority that's been recognized over the years," Johnson told Axios' Hans Nichols. "If it gets close to where the imbalance is there, then we would step in."
- "But I think the first protocol, to be very frank, is I would call the president and talk with him," he added.
MAGA bill deadlines
Johnson acknowledged Wednesday the real deadline will be the debt ceiling X date.
- "That's a big pressure point, and we don't know exactly when that X date will fall," Johnson said. "I have had to work under the assumption... that it could be the earliest date, maybe early June, so we can't be caught flat-footed on this."
- Johnson has repeatedly said he wants to pass Trump's "one, big beautiful bill" full of tax cuts, border funds and spending reductions by Memorial Day.
- "The Treasury Secretary said July 4th this week in public statements, and we applauded that, but I really hope we do it sooner," Johnson said.
Medicaid cuts
Johnson said he was not sure that House Republicans would come up with $500 billion in savings in the Medicaid program, but "We aspire to that."
- He argued that the estimate of "waste, fraud and abuse" in the program comes to $51 billion a year — tallying to roughly $500 billion over 10 years.
- Democrats have pounced on the idea of Republicans cutting Medicaid benefits as part of their mission to lower federal spending.
- Johnson defended their approach saying Americans "depend upon these things, and our job is to shore them up and make sure that we preserve the programs for the people who are genuinely need and deserve it."
Democrat impeachment threat
Johnson warned that if he loses the majority in the House next year, he expects Democrats to attempt to impeach Trump for a third time "on Day One."
- "They've already filed articles, and they're talking about it as recently as this week," he said.
