Trump’s endorsement of Speaker Johnson may not be enough to save him

House Republicans will decide just how quickly they want to tackle President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda on Friday when they vote on whether to keep the speaker gavel in the hands of Mike Johnson, who may not be safe even with the endorsement.

House Democrats will not back Mr. Johnson. His bid for his first, full session of Congress as speaker could, ultimately, be decided by a pair of House Republicans who oppose him and who have tuned out Mr. Trump.

Republicans will have a small window to hammer through Mr. Trump’s agenda, given the GOP’s slight majority in the House. Having a speaker fight, or jettisoning Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, could be a costly time waster.

Mr. Trump, in his endorsement of Mr. Johnson, urged House Republicans not to “blow this great opportunity which we have been given.”

The speaker has often referred to the upcoming session of Congress as the most consequential of the modern era. He pitched himself Monday on Fox News as someone who works well with Mr. Trump and could follow through on passing his agenda.

“He recognizes that what we need right now, I think my colleagues recognize this as well, is a proven fighter and a true MAGA conservative,” Mr. Johnson said. “But also someone who can work with every single member of our very diverse House GOP so that we can get President Trump’s priorities over the line.”

Whether Mr. Johnson will be the one to lead the GOP in pushing through Mr. Trump’s plan is a question of math. The 119th Congress will begin with 219 GOP-held seats to 215 controlled by Democrats. That means the speaker can lose just two votes. And that’s barring any absences on lawmakers’ first day back to work in the new year.

He’s already lost one.

“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, on X. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the Democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”

Mr. Massie’s position against the speaker is not new. He and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona banded together to try and oust Mr. Johnson earlier this year.

But his warning that Mr. Johnson could morph into a version of Mr. Ryan, who fought Mr. Trump on the border wall during his first term before retiring from Congress, was echoed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who despite that backed the president-elect’s decision to endorse the speaker.

“You might be right,” Mr. Musk posted on X about Mr. Massie’s concerns, “but let’s see how it goes.”

Then there are the undecideds, who could throw a wrench into Friday night’s speaker vote.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland announced that he’s on the fence regarding Mr. Johnson after the weeklong fight over the recently passed government funding extension, arguing that since Mr. Trump won, the speaker has greenlit billions in new spending without any offsets or cuts.

Mr. Trump’s endorsement still hasn’t convinced Mr. Harris. A spokesperson for him told The Washington Times, “Johnson has reached out and they are aiming for discussions as the vote nears.”

Another Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, is also undecided. Mr. Trump singled him out before lawmakers left town for Christmas, threatening to primary him unless he played ball on then-ongoing negotiations to include a suspension of the nation’s debt limit into the government funding extension.

Because of that, it’s unlikely that an endorsement from Mr. Trump would change the hard-line lawmaker’s mind.

“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,” Mr. Roy told Fox Business on Tuesday.

Fellow Freedom Caucus member Michael Cloud of Texas was teetering following the government funding extension vote. The Times reached out to him on whether the president-elect’s weighing in changed his mind.

Then there’s Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, another detractor who fiercely criticized Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy of California.

She demanded in a statement that Mr. Johnson pledge to a wishlist of her demands to tackle spending in Washington, or else she wouldn’t support him.

“We must have a vision and a concrete PLAN to deliver on President Trump’s agenda for the American people, which I have not seen from our current speaker despite countless discussions and public promises,” Ms. Spartz said.