Mike Johnson and John Thune Can’t Keep Up With Trump on Shutdown

Fractures atop the Republican Party are further complicating negotiations to end the government shutdown.

President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have not only failed to conjure a resolution to the ongoing shutdown, but they have also failed to conceal the tension bubbling beneath the surface.

So far, Trump’s strategy—which prioritizes punishing his political allies—has only tripped up his congressional counterparts.

On Monday, Trump stepped over his allies’ messaging when he told reporters he was “talking to Democrats” about cutting a deal on health care. He quickly walked it back, posting to Truth Social: “I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open.”

On Tuesday, Johnson said that he had spoken with Trump “at length” about the urgent need to reopen the government—but Thune didn’t seem to be on the same page. That same day, the South Dakota lawmaker told reporters that there were “ongoing conversations” among party leadership.

Hours later, a draft White House memo reported by Axios revealed that the Trump administration was questioning the legality of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which guarantees back pay for furloughed federal workers. Both Thune and Johnson had voted for it, but the Senate majority leader struggled to contain his frustration at Trump’s attempt to undermine it now.

“All you have to do to prevent any federal employee from not getting paid is to open up the government,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “I don’t know what statute they are using. My understanding is, yes, that they would get paid. I’ll find out. I haven’t heard this up until now.

“But again it’s a very straightforward proposition, and you guys keep chasing that narrative that they’ve got going down at the White House and up here with the Democrats,” Thune added.

Johnson told reporters that he supported federal back pay and believed that the White House did, as well—but Trump quickly poured cold water on that.

“I would say it depends who we’re talking about,” Trump told reporters, just hours later. “For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people, but for some people they don’t deserve to be taken care of.”

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” Trump wrote in a brief Truth Social post. “Governor Pritzker also!”

The threat comes as National Guard troops have landed in Chicago at the direction of the president, over Pritzker’s and Johnson’s objections. Johnson also received the White House’s ire Monday for an executive order establishing “ICE-free zones” in the city.

Illinois sued the administration on Monday in hopes of halting the troops’ deployment. Scheduling a hearing for Thursday, U.S. District Judge Judge April M. Perry, who is overseeing the case, declined to immediately block the administration, but warned, “If I were the federal government, I would strongly consider taking a pause on this until Thursday.” The National Guard arrived this week nonetheless.

A Justice Department memo found that a key witness in the Trump-ordered prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey will actually undermine the entire case, reported ABC News Wednesday.

It was previously reported that prosecutors in a September memo warned Lindsey Halligan, Donald Trump’s hand-picked U.S. attorney leading the case, against pursuing it due to insufficient evidence. Defying that warning, Halligan got Comey indicted last month, including for allegedly misleading Congress when he denied having authorized others at the FBI to leak information anonymously to the media.

Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor, was supposed to be a major witness—apparently as someone Comey allegedly authorized to speak to reporters anonymously—but investigators found that his testimony would actually be “problematic” and pose “likely insurmountable problems” for the prosecution, according to ABC News sources.

In a September interview, Richman told investigators that the former FBI director “instructed him not to engage with the media on at least two occasions” and “never authorized him to provide information to a reporter anonymously ahead of the 2016 election.” ABC News sources also said a review of Comey’s emails, including with Richman, “could not identify an instance when Comey approved leaking material to a reporter anonymously.” The memo recommended that prosecutors not move forward with the case.

It is the latest of several blinding neon signs indicating that Comey is facing trumped-up charges simply for being on Trump’s bad side.

Trump Republicans aren’t too happy about the new Zach Bryan song coming for the airwaves.

The Grammy award–winning country music singer released a snippet of an unreleased track, “Bad News,” on his Instagram over the weekend. From the minute-long preview, “Bad News” appears to be an old-fashioned protest song that captures scenes of a disintegrating America, taking swipes at ICE while lamenting the “fading of the red, white, and blue.”

“I heard the cops came / Cocky motherfuckers, ain’t they?” sings Bryan. “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / But I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone.

“The bars stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling / The middlе fingers rising, and it won’t stop showing / Got some bad news / Thе fading of the red, white and blue,” the song continues.

Bryan, a self-described “total libertarian,” has rarely dipped his toe into national politics. In 2023, he publicly feuded with fellow country music star Travis Tritt after Bud Light opted to feature a transgender activist in one of its commercials. At the time, Bryan warned his fans against “insulting transgender people.”

But this weekend’s teaser absolutely jolted supporters of the president’s agenda, particularly those in the country music enclave, who have since expressed their disinterest in Bryan’s foray into political commentary.

Nashville singer Jake Owen called Bryan a tool. Big & Rich’s John Rich sarcastically posited there might be a “large ‘anti law enforcement’ wing of the country music fanbase” that Bryan could tap into.

Incredibly, the Trump administration also commented on the pop culture development. In an email to Rolling Stone, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that Bryan should “stick to Pink Skies,” referring to the musician’s song about a funeral. McLaughlin reiterated the comment on X Tuesday.

The White House shared its two cents, rejecting Bryan’s vision while reiterating Donald Trump’s “mandate from the people” governing philosophy.

“While Zach Bryan wants to Open The Gates to criminal illegal aliens and has Condemned heroic ICE officers, Something in the Orange tells me a majority of Americans disagree with him and support President Trump’s great American Revival. Godspeed, Zach!” said spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement to Axios.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday said he will schedule the long-awaited swearing-in of Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva “as soon as she wants.” That’s not true, as that day has already come and gone.

After handily winning a special election in Arizona two weeks ago, Grijalva is poised to give Democrats some more power in the House—and also, notably, supply the deciding signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein files.

But Johnson has stalled Grijalva’s swearing-in thus far, even calling the House in recess (seemingly in order to pressure Senate Democrats to cave on the shutdown). Many Democrats—Grijalva included—have chalked the delay up to an attempt to prevent the release of the Epstein files.

Johnson on Tuesday pushed back against that idea, telling CNN reporter Manu Raju, “It has nothing to do with that at all,” and that he would “swear her in when everybody gets back.” But, as Raju noted, there’s no need to wait for a full regular session; Grijalva could be sworn in during one of the brief, minutes-long pro forma House sessions regularly taking place during the recess.

After all, Johnson swore in Republican Representatives Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine during a pro forma session in April. At a pro forma session last week, Democratic lawmakers shouted at the presiding member (Johnson was not in attendance) to swear in the newly elected Democrat, but their pleas fell on deaf ears, and the session was quickly gaveled out.

So why not swear Grijalva in during a pro forma? Throwing up his hands, Johnson replied Tuesday: “Uh, look. We’ll schedule it, I guess, as soon as she wants.”

This was clearly a cop-out, considering Grijalva has, in fact, publicly called for her swearing-in repeatedly over the past two weeks. A few examples: In an interview published three days after her election, Grijalva spoke out against Johnson for dragging his feet. Three days after that, she wrote on social media that “there’s no reason why Speaker Johnson cannot swear me in tomorrow during the pro forma session,” citing the cases of Patronis and Fine.

On Monday, she put it even more directly: “Swear me in NOW,” she posted on X, tagging Johnson’s profile.