Mike Johnson’s Trump Management

Today’s notice: Trying to move on. The House GOP can’t decide how to campaign on the last two years. The Army apparently would like to let Trump’s Arlington cemetery mess fade away. Haitian advocates are trying to end the misinformation about them.

Johnson Manages Up

If this is Donald Trump playing nice with Mike Johnson over his plan to avert a shutdown, House GOP lawmakers aren’t convinced the détente can last long.

“Who gets along with anybody in this town?” Jack Bergman told NOTUS. “You don’t have friends in this town. You have allies for the moment. And so he’s an ally for the moment.”

The question for Johnson — and the future of his speakership — seems to be how long can he keep Trump at bay. And whether Trump will actually be there for him when Republicans inevitably come for Johnson’s gavel. One tick in Johnson’s favor so far: The president, having already twice railed against a clean stopgap plan, didn’t blast Johnson on Truth Social when he announced exactly that. The House votes today.

But managing up to the big GOP boss is no easy feat. As Monica De La Cruz put it, “President Trump is in charge of President Trump, and I think he’s proven that he’s not going to be managed by anyone.”

NOTUS’ Reese Gorman uncovered one potential reason for Trump’s quiet. Johnson privately told a group of lawmakers that he doesn’t blame the speaker for averting a shutdown, adding that Trump agrees that the GOP would absorb blame for a shutdown. That’s a problem with weeks until Election Day.

Lawmakers in meetings with Johnson on Monday and Tuesday said they felt the speaker successfully got through to Trump. But if Trump wins the White House and Johnson keeps the gavel, the speaker will have to get through to Trump again and again and again.

After all, Ralph Norman told NOTUS, “Mike has got to please 434 people. Trump’s got to please the nation.”

—Riley Rogerson | Read more here.

House Republicans Get Emo

Lawmakers will soon be heading home for their final campaign swings before the election and some in the majority party are having the feels about what they’ve done this last term. Three angsty quotes from the latest by NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt:

Chip Roy: “There’s a lot that we’ve left on the field that I think we could have accomplished had we been more aggressive.”

James Comer: “Chip knows that we can pass all the bills in the world. If the Senate doesn’t work with us, then they’re not going to become law … We checked the boxes that we told the American people we were going to check.”

Warren Davidson: “You’ve got purists that won’t vote for anything unless it’s perfect, and you’ve got the other end that won’t fight to accomplish anything … It’s unfortunate that we haven’t found a way to work together to force more votes in the Senate.”

Read the story here.

Front Page

• Mike Johnson Privately Tells Republicans Trump Doesn’t Want a Shutdown: The speaker briefed members on his private conversation with Trump.
• The Pentagon’s Quiet Attempt to Keep Out of the Trump Arlington Cemetery Controversy: Lawmakers are still waiting on the incident report.
• Joe Manchin Won’t Endorse Harris Over Her Support for Ending Abortion Filibuster: “I think that’s basically something that can destroy our country,” Manchin said of a filibuster carveout for abortion.

Please Don’t Ask About That Trump Arlington Cemetery Incident

Lawmakers want to know exactly what went down in an altercation involving Trump campaign staff and an Arlington National Cemetery employee last month. But NOTUS’ John T. Seward reported that a Pentagon official informally advised at least one House office to let the issue fade away. Why? The Army wants out of 2024’s political mudslinging.

All of this raises the uncomfortable and common question of fallen service members becoming political props. “I don’t think we should try to pretend that we’re going to clean up the politics of people wrapping themselves in our nation’s flag,” Rep. Darrell Issa said. “That ship is never coming back to the dock.”

Read the story here.

Quotable

“...the filibuster is the holy grail of democracy.”

Joe Manchin said he’s not endorsing Harris after she voiced support for changing filibuster rules to codify abortion rights into law. Harris has held this position since 2022. Manchin said he hoped she would “change” her mind.

Number You Should Know

161

The number of exceptions to the filibuster the Senate has carved out for various reasons between 1969-2014, according to Brookings.

Back in Springfield, Ohio…

Haitian immigration advocates have filed criminal charges in Springfield, Ohio, against Trump and Vance for what they call an effort “to vilify and threaten” the immigrant community, citing the bomb threats and “racially charged threats” hospitals, schools, government offices and officials have received in recent weeks.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance’s filing asked the Clark County Municipal Court to affirm probable cause that Trump and Vance committed multiple crimes for repeating baseless lies about Haitian immigrants and to issue arrest warrants against them both.

“It’s critical for us to address these issues in court because we understand the harm that has been committed on the Haitian community at large, not just in Springfield where the epicenter is,” Guerline Jozef, the executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, told NOTUS.

—Calen Razor

Not Us

We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by … not us.

• The New York Times reports that apparently Mark Zuckerberg is “done with politics.”
• Arizona officials are creating a ballot that Navajo voters can listen to, according to Votebeat.
• McKay Coppins reports on restless Mitt Romney as his Senate career comes to an end: “Mormon missionaries have a term for the feeling of distraction and homesickness that sometimes settles in as they approach the end of their service: trunky.”
• ProPublica reported that the Biden administration ignored its own agencies’ findings that Israel had intentionally blocked humanitarian aid.

Be Social

Uh-oh! Seems like Political Pattie’s Bar isn’t so political anymore. Or at all. The real question now is: Can people refrain from talking about politics at now-Pattie’s Bar?

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