Speaker Mike Johnson’s bluff-calling strategy reaches its limit: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Sahil Kapur explains how a failed committee vote revealed the limitations of Speaker Mike Johnson’s tactics for dealing with the hard-right rebels in his conference. Plus, we have a sneak peek of Kristen Welker’s “Meet the Press” interview with former Vice President Mike Pence. And Gary Grumbach answer’s this week’s reader question on President Donald Trump’s efforts to defund public media. 

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— Adam Wollner

Speaker Johnson’s bluff-calling strategy reaches its limit

By Sahil Kapur

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s run of (relative) smooth sailing came to an abrupt end Friday when he faced his first tangible setback on a massive party-line bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda — a failed vote in the House Budget Committee.

Until now, Johnson had been successful at steering the plan through the narrowly divided House. There was the original budget framework that the House adopted in February, followed by the Senate-approved blueprint that the lower chamber passed in April, despite strong reservations from the hard-liners in Johnson’s conference. That allowed the House to actually begin drafting the specifics of the legislation. And this week, Johnson and his leadership team managed to get 11 House committees to approve their portions of the broader package.

The legislation was then sent to the Budget Committee, on the assumption that some revisions would be still needed to send it to the full chamber next week ahead of Johnson’s Memorial Day Weekend deadline. 

Throughout the process, Johnson often called bluff on the persistent gripes of a group of far-right spending hawks, forcing them to take votes and assuming they would not be willing to stand in the way of Trump’s agenda. It’s a strategy that proved successful time and again. 

But on Friday, four conservatives on the Budget Committee had enough, following through on their pledge to block the measure from reaching the House floor. They slammed the bill for using budget gimmicks to trigger its benefits right away and postpone its painful cuts for years. And they noted that the multitrillion-dollar package would blow up the national debt.  

Now comes the moment of truth. And the limits of the slim House Republican majority, where the party has just three votes to spare, are about to test Johnson’s prowess like never before. 

The hard-liners are demanding that the spending cuts to Medicaid, clean energy funding and other programs take effect sooner. That means imposing political pain on vulnerable GOP lawmakers ahead of the next presidential election — perhaps even before the 2026 midterms — and putting swing districts at risk.

But if Johnson fails to meet their demands, are the hard-liners willing to sink the bill entirely? Or was their vote Friday more of a symbolic protest to gain negotiating leverage? Surely, they’ll be hearing from Trump if they persist. (Before Friday’s committee vote, Trump called out GOP “GRANDSTANDERS” on Truth Social.)

The speaker is also feeling the squeeze from another corner of the conference. At least four New York Republicans are threatening to bring down the entire bill on the House floor unless party leaders expand the state and local tax (SALT) deduction that the current legislation sets at $30,000. That demand has caused consternation among other Republicans, who largely represent districts where SALT isn’t heavily used.

And even if Johnson steers the package through the chamber, Senate Republicans have already put the House on notice that the legislation won’t pass the upper chamber without major changes.

Up next: The House Budget Committee is set to reconvene Sunday at 10 p.m. ET to vote again on the bill.

Pence says it’s a ‘bad idea’ for Trump to accept a Qatari jet for use as Air Force One

By Bridget Bowman

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that President Donald Trump should not accept a luxury jet from Qatar to use as the next Air Force One, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that the move would raise security and constitutional concerns.  

“First we’ve got to remember who Qatar is. We’ve got a military base there. I have members of our immediate family that have deployed to the region,” said Pence.

“But Qatar has a long history of playing both sides,” Pence said in the exclusive interview at his home in Indiana. “They support Hamas. They supported Al Qaeda. Qatar has actually financed pro-Hamas protests on American campuses across the United States.”

Pence added that accepting the plane as the next Air Force One “is inconsistent with our security, with our intelligence needs. And my hope is the president reconsiders it.”

Pence added that there are “very real constitutional issues,” noting the part of the Constitution that bars public officials from accepting gifts from a foreign government. 

“I think it’s just a bad idea, and my hope is the president will think better of it,” Pence said.

Watch the clip here →

And check out the full interview with Pence on “Meet the Press” this Sunday.

✉️ Mailbag: Trump vs. Congress (and the courts)

Thanks to everyone who emailed us! This week’s question comes from Polly Moore:

“How can Trump defund programs established by Congress, such as public TV and National Public Radio?” 

To answer that, we turned to legal affairs reporter Gary Grumbach. Here’s his response: 

President Donald Trump has been attempting to defund programs established by Congress, but he’s hitting roadblocks almost every time. Because here’s the thing — there are legal ways to defund programs established by Congress.  

It happens every year when the budget process gets underway, with input from both sides of the aisle in both chambers of Congress. But Congress, by law, has to be involved in that process. It’s when they’re not, and when a program is stripped down beyond its congressionally mandated levels, that we start seeing legal action being taken. 

And that legal action has been fast and furious. Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have all sued over the Trump administration’s attempts to defund or dismantle their organizations that were created and funded by congressional appropriations.  

But it hasn’t been an easy road. As it stands today, an appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower court’s order that would have restarted funding and brought back employees of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, while appeals are underway.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Ben Kamisar.

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