Mike Johnson scrambles to defend Trump as president cuts legs out from under Republicans

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was put on the spot on Wednesday afternoon when Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a highly anticipated signing ceremony for a housing bill that Republicans were counting on to stop their slide in the polls.

As workers were setting up chairs and GOP lawmakers began showing up for the signing of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the president pulled the plug on the ceremony by writing on Truth Social, “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”

Despite the bill passing in his chamber with a stunning bipartisan vote of a 358-32, Johnson attempted to blow off concerns when confronted by MS NOW’s Mychael Schnell as he tried to race past her.

“Just a few minutes ago I walked through Statuary Hall, which is where the signing ceremony was set to take place, there is a stage set, there are chairs there with names of elected officials and their seats that they're supposed to sit in, so this was all ready to go,” she told host Antonia Hylton.

“And then, once again, President Trump cut the ground from under Republicans' legs, and this is now no longer happening — particularly a shock because this was a bipartisan bill that passed with widespread majorities up here on Capitol Hill,” she added before elaborating, “I'm talking more than 300 votes in the House and more than 80 votes in the Senate, not something you see every day, and lawmakers were surprised by this decision.”

“I caught up with Speaker Mike Johnson in the hallway just a few minutes ago and I asked him why is President Trump once again blindsiding Republicans? He, though, didn't see it that way,” she stated before clip ran showing Johnson rushing out of a meeting.

Asked about Trump “blindsiding,” party members, Johnson replied without breaking stride, “I wouldn’t call it a blindside. He has been saying consistently for months that the Save America Act is a top priority.”

“I talked to him about it this morning, an hour before he made that announcement,” he revealed. “And I convinced him that I thought that housing is a priority and a legitimate policy. I need to go through with him the policies and the changes we made on the original Senate bill.”

“But this is on hold,” Schnell pointed out.

“I think it will delay the signing for a bit,” Johnson replied.

After the clip, the MS NOW correspondent added, “This was a surprise for these lawmakers up on Capitol Hill they were all set to attend. The signing ceremony was already here in the Capital and it comes after a number of other instances of President Trump shocking Republicans.”

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