Mike Johnson’s speaker reelection could come down to a single Republican vote
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(WASHINGTON) — Republican Rep. Chip Roy said Tuesday that he doesn’t think House Speaker Mike Johnson has the necessary votes to remain speaker in Friday’s leadership election.
“Right now, I don’t believe that he has the votes on Friday, and I think we need to have the conference get together so we can get united,” Roy told Fox Business.
The speaker vote comes after a number of House Republicans grew frustrated with Johnson during the final days of the 118th Congress, which saw a bitter fight over spending that nearly caused a government shutdown before Christmas.
Roy is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus whose chair, Rep. Andy Harris, has also said he is undecided on whether to support Johnson. They’re among 15 House Republicans by ABC News’ count who are undecided on whether they’ll vote for Johnson.
Depending on attendance during Friday’s vote, Johnson may only be able to afford to lose a single Republican vote to win the gavel.
The recent resignation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz will leave the House with 434 members — 219 Republicans and 215 Democrats.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has already said he won’t support Johnson, even after Monday’s endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump. GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana and a number of other members have also expressed skepticism about Johnson.
“Victoria is a good friend and Thomas is a good friend and they raise reasonable concerns,” Roy told Fox. “I remain undecided as do a number of my colleagues because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president’s agenda.”
Roy expressed concern about the events that unfolded on Capitol Hill in the week leading up to Christmas, including the original government funding bill that was torpedoed by Trump and his allies.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who was tapped by Trump to run the new private advisory “Department of Government Efficiency,” initially trashed a bipartisan funding bill that would have averted a shutdown in a post on X as the House prepared to vote. Trump later issued a statement opposing the bill and demanding that it include provisions to either raise or eliminate the nation’s debt ceiling before his inauguration on Jan. 20.
The bipartisan bill ultimately failed. A bill that included Trump’s debt ceiling demands also failed. A third attempt that included $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were in the original measure, passed in the House at the 11th hour and 38 minutes past the deadline in the Senate.
The rush to get a bill passed before the deadline caused Johnson to forgo the rule that allows members 72 hours to read legislation before a vote.
Trump endorsed Johnson on Monday, saying “Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” Trump wrote at the end of a lengthy social media post. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”
Musk on Monday also backed Johnson, writing on X, “I feel the same way! You have my full support.”
But that seems to have done little to ease Roy’s concerns.
“I respect like Thomas that President Trump supports Mike, he’s a good friend, but let’s consider what happened the week before Christmas,” Roy said.
Roy said the Republican conference needs to get on the same page before Friday.
“What we need to do is unite around a plan to deliver for the president. Right now I do not believe that the conference has that,” Roy said.
Spartz said Monday some of her GOP colleagues are interested in the speaker’s gavel, but she wouldn’t reveal which members because they don’t want to publicly oppose Johnson.
(WASHINGTON) — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy comes to the White House on Friday to ink a deal that would give the U.S. access to his country’s mineral resources — an agreement that President Donald Trump has cast a way to ensure American taxpayers get paid back for supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“We’ll be digging. We’ll be dig, dig, digging. Dig, we must,” Trump said on Thursday, saying the U.S. would be “doing a substantial amount of work” in Ukraine “taking the rare earth, which we need in our country very badly.”
“It’ll be great for Ukraine,” he continued. “It’s like a huge economic development project. So, it’ll be good for both countries.”
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has spoken about the deal in different terms — describing it as a means to an end: keeping U.S. backing.
If not the full-fledged military security guarantee he wants, Trump administration officials have said a U.S. economic investment on the ground in Ukraine could serve as a kind of barrier to a further Russian invasion.
“I will meet with President Trump,” the Ukrainian leader said on Wednesday. “For me, and for all of us in the world, it is crucial that America’s assistance is not stopped. Strength is essential on the path to peace.”
ABC News spoke to officials and analysts to break down what’s in the deal, and what the agreement could mean for Ukraine’s future and efforts to end the war after three grueling years.
What is — and isn’t — in the deal
Officials familiar with the negotiations say that under the terms of the deal, the U.S. and the Ukraine will work together to unearth deposits of valuable minerals and other natural Ukrainian resources.
Unlike the original proposal, this framework does not call for Kyiv to use the proceeds from the sale of those resources to pay the U.S. $500 billion — which the Trump administration previously characterized as “payback” for the roughly $183 billion spent in response to Russia’s invasion, according to the U.S. special inspector general in charge of overseeing Ukrainian aid.
Instead, the deal aims to create an investment fund for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction that will be jointly owned by both countries, they say, and that additional negotiations on the control of that fund and its operation will take place will take place after the initial deal is cemented.
Other factors will depend on the free market.
“The profitability of the fund is entirely dependent on the success of new investments in Ukraine’s resources,” said Gracelin Baskaran, the director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Meredith Schwartz, a research associate at the same program.
“Therefore, the response of private industry is key to the success of the fund and will determine how much value the United States ultimately derives,” they added.
But officials say the Ukrainians also made concessions. Officials say Kyiv initially wanted the terms of the deal to include concrete security guarantees for Ukraine — something the current framework lacks.
“However, the idea is that with joint U.S.-Ukraine investment in the nation’s resources, the United States will continue to have a stake in Ukraine’s security, stability, and lasting peace and therefore be incentivized to uphold and defend Ukrainian security,” Baskaran and Schwartz said.
If it proves successful, Baskaran and Schwartz say the U.S. may boost its mineral security — but that the results could take decades to come to fruition.
“Mining is a long-term effort — so the United States may not yield benefits for another 20 years,” they said.
Trump himself has acknowledged the uncertainty.
“You know, you dig and maybe things aren’t there like you think they’re there,” he said on Thursday.
A different tune from Trump
After repeatedly bashing Zelenskyy in recent days, Trump softened his tone on Thursday.
Asked if he still believed Zelenskyy was a dictator — an assertion he made just over a week ago — Trump answered, “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that,” before brusquely moving on to the next questioner.
Later in the day, Trump also offered praise for Zelenskyy and Ukrainian fighters’ valor on the battlefield.
“We’ve given him a lot of equipment and a lot of money, but they have fought very bravely. No matter how you figure it, they have really fought,” he said. “Somebody has to use that equipment. And they have been very brave in that sense.”
Ukrainian officials who have been urging Zelenskyy to accept the mineral pact are likely to see this turnaround as proof positive for their main argument — that signing off on Trump’s deal will boost ties between the Trump administration and Kyiv, while drawing out negotiations would further sour the president’s view of Zelenskyy.
But whether any bonhomie will last is unclear.
“Critical mineral resource access is the latest arena for Trump to focus his transactional methods of diplomacy,” Baskaran and Schwartz argue. “But the viability of the deal remains to be seen as tensions continue to rise between the two world leaders.”
Trump is not known for his patience, and some U.S. officials anticipate slow-moving results from the agreement could leave Trump frustrated.
Or, if the two clash during their high-stakes White House meeting, the president could become embittered toward Zelenskyy again even sooner where Trump is likely to spotlight potential benefits the mineral agreement holds for the U.S. and the Ukrainian leader is likely to push for additional American security guarantees.
But the president shared only positive predictions on the eve of the meeting.
“I think we’re going to have a very good meeting,” he said. “We’re going to get along really well. Okay. We have a lot of respect. I have a lot of respect for him.”
John E. Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, argues the very fact that the meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump is taking place is a good sign for Ukraine.
“Zelenskyy’s visit highlights how far he has come from two weeks back, when Trump spoke of seeing Putin as many as three times in the near future, or even last week, when senior Russian and US officials were meeting in Riyadh,” he said. “Yet now it is Zelenskyy, not Putin, in the Oval Office.”
The other negotiations
While much of the public focus has shifted toward negotiations over the mineral deal in recent weeks, talks ultimately aimed at ultimately ending the war in Ukraine have quietly continued on a separate track.
On Thursday, American and Russian officials met in Istanbul for more than 6 hours to discuss increasing staff at their respective embassies in Moscow and Washington — a move Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said was essential for furthering potential areas cooperation between the countries, including resolving the war in Ukraine.
Officials from sides reported a favorable outcome from the meeting, and predict that an larger diplomatic footprint could create momentum for peace talks and a potential summit between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
As a chorus of European leaders have tried to encourage Trump to include American security guarantees for Ukraine to enforce a truce with Russia, the president has continued to say he trusts Putin to hold up his end of a deal.
“I’ve known him for a long time now,” Trump said. “I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word. I don’t think he’ll be back. When we make a deal, I think the deal is going to hold.
But ahead of his meeting with the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he added a potentially important caveat.
“You know, look, it’s, trust and verify, let’s call it that,” he said.
Clifford D. May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argues it’s imperative that the president is clear-eyed in his dealings with Putin.
“As President Trump attempts to negotiate a halt to Russia’s war against Ukraine, it’s not unreasonable for him to show respect for Mr. Putin (as he has been) if he believes that will make Mr. Putin more likely to agree to concessions,” he said.
“But it’s imperative that President Trump harbor no illusions about Mr. Putin – about his character, ambitions, ideology, and his abiding hatred for American greatness,” May added.
(WASHINGTON) — At his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, President Donald Trump is expected to face dozens of civil servants fired from their positions across the executive branch as congressional Democrats make a concerted effort to bring terminated bureaucrats as their guests.
Of his five guests, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., invited two fired federal workers, including a USAID worker and a disabled Army veteran.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who will deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s address, is bringing Andrew Lennox, who was fired from his administrative position at the Department of Veterans Affairs last month without notice. Lennox served as a Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona invited Kyle Rahn, a disabled Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq before working at the Department of Homeland Security, from which he was fired last month.
Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois invited Adam Mulvey, a 20-year Army veteran who served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was fired from his role at Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Spring Grove, Illinois, on Feb. 13.
The dynamic is sure to create tension in the chamber as the president looks to highlight his administration’s actions over his first 44 days in office.
While ABC News has confirmed that Elon Musk, who Trump has empowered to slash the federal workforce and budgets, is expected to attend, it’s not yet known whether he’s a guest of the first lady or a member of Congress or the precise circumstances of his attendance.
Several lawmakers are also bringing guests related to the Israel-Hamas war, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has invited Noa Argamani, who was released by Hamas after 245 days in captivity. Schumer also invited Orna Neutra, whose daughter Omer was killed in captivity by Hamas.
Iowa Republican Rep. Mary Miller-Meeks is bringing Riley Gains, the former All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky who has been at the forefront of the effort to defend women’s sports and advocate for policies that protect female athletes.
Some Democrats are opting to invited constituents who rely on Medicaid and are worried that the GOP’s budget reconciliation plans could impact their benefits. There also appear to be a significant group of farmers invited to attend the address.
(GREENLAND) — Donald Trump, Jr., son of President-elect Donald Trump, arrived in Greenland on Tuesday after emphasizing that the trip is just a personal one, indicating he is not meeting with government officials.
His trip comes as his father continues to float the possibility of the U.S. purchasing and taking over Greenland, an autonomous territory administered by Denmark. Trump had also suggested the possibility during his first administration.
Abut the same time as his eldest son landed, the president-elect, celebrating his son and his advisers’ trip to Greenland, floated a “deal” that he claims “must happen,” while not elaborating on what deal that is.
“Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland. The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen,” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday morning. “MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
Danish officials have continued to emphasize that Greenland is not for sale.
Traveling on a Trump plane, Donald Trump Trump Jr. landed in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday morning, joined by incoming White House Director of the Presidential Personnel Office Sergio Gor, incoming White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs James Blair, and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
Trump Jr. posted photos of himself and others in Greenland on X on Tuesday, writing, “Greenland is beautiful!!!”
On Monday, Trump Jr. discussed the visit while emphasizing that it is not a political trip.
“No, I am not buying Greenland,” Donald Trump Jr. said on Monday on his podcast show on Rumble. “Funny enough, I’m actually going on a very long personal day trip to Greenland tomorrow [Tuesday].”
“So, I’m going as a tourist. But apparently someone leaked that, so it made all sorts of news, so I figured I’d address it here. No meetings with the government officials, none of that. But I do love Greenland,” Trump Jr. said.
A source familiar with the matter told ABC News that Donald Trump Jr. is visiting Greenland just for the day to shoot videos for a podcast and reiterated he’s not scheduled to meet with any government officials or political figures.
President-elect Trump, on Monday, mentioned his son’s visit in a post on his social media platform, and wrote, “Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation.”
The president-elect had reintroduced his proposal to take over Greenland in December during his announcement of Ken Howery as United States Ambassador to Denmark.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity. Ken will do a wonderful job in representing the interests of the United States,” Trump wrote in the announcement.
On Christmas, Trump claimed in a social media post that Greenland needs the United States to be there for “national security purposes,” before adding, “and we will!”
During his first administration, Trump tried to buy the country; however, the United States ended up giving the island $12 million for economic development instead.
Officials from Greenland and Denmark have pushed back both explicitly and implicitly against Trump’s stated desire to purchase the territory.
In December, Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede wrote in a statement, “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale.”
Separately, The Independent reported on Tuesday that the king of Denmark has adjusted the Danish coat of arms to show symbols representing Greenland and the Faroe Islands, the two autonomous territories administered by Denmark.
