Politico Playbook: Why Trump is Johnson’s best friend right now

What happens when an unstoppable liar meets a completely movable object?

Or at least that’s how I think the saying goes.

The Donald Trump/Mike Johnson partnership was inevitable. Not because the Speaker thinks throwing his (quite limited) influence behind the former President will help either or both in November, nor because the 45th President has suddenly taken an interest in governing. It was inevitable because Johnson has done what almost every other imperiled (and weak-kneed) Republican has done in the last seven years: parrot what Trump wants to hear in exchange for his support. Does the Speaker seriously care about “election integrity?”¹

No. Effing. Way.

He knows that Joe Biden won in 2020—and not in the “well yeah, but Trump would have won if the election was fair” pretzel that some try to twist themselves into. Instead, he’s scared of the fake conservative, MAGA folks who have realized that spewing BS and stomping their feet can raise their profiles from nobodies to someone who can show their grandkids their hits on OAN one day.

So, the Speaker has chosen that the best way to keep his job is to talk about “election integrity.”² Cool. Good for him. It will work for now, but inevitably he’ll end up like basically every other person with a shred of intelligence and self-respect who has tried to stay on the right side of Trump: crumpled up and tossed aside when he is no longer useful or strays too far from what Trump and his minions want to hear.

¹ And to be clear, we all know what “election integrity” means. It’s not really about signature verification, ballot harvesting or early vote rules. It’s the lipstick on a pig messaging that GOP communications professionals (like myself in a former life) have come up with to keep pretending that there was something most-definitely-we-promise-but-just-can’t-really-put-a-finger-on-it happening with the 2020 Election.

² Full disclosure: I have a handful of friends and former colleagues who work for the Speaker, all of whom I hold in high regard and respect their talent and judgment. They are all doing their jobs to the best of their ability. I just don’t envy their position.