'Hot head by nature': Mike Johnson once said 'dangerous' Trump 'would break more things than he fixes'

Before he was given the speaker's gavel in a unanimous vote by his Republican colleagues, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was once a critic of former President Donald Trump.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that in a 2015 Facebook post after the first Republican presidential primary debate of the 2016 cycle, then-private citizen Mike Johnson both cast doubt on Trump's "moral center" and even debated a Trump supporter in the comments.

"The thing about Donald Trump is that he lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House," Johnson wrote in the post that was published a full year before he was first elected to Congress.

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In that debate, which was Trump's first since declaring his campaign, CNN wrote that the eventual president "stole the show before he'd even said a word." That debate included Trump's now-famous exchange with debate moderator Megyn Kelly, in which she confronted Trump about times he "called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals."

"Only Rosie O'Donnell," Trump said to laughter from the audience. He then doubled down when Kelly pushed him, saying "we have a good time. What I say is what I say. And honestly Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry."

When one of Trump's supporters pushed back on Johnson's description of then-candidate Trump, Johnson held fast to his original position, writing "I am afraid he would break more things than he fixes."

"He is a hot head by nature, and that is a dangerous trait to have in a Commander in Chief," Johnson wrote.

READ MORE: House Republicans privately warned Mike Johnson of 'populist rage' the day before January 6

As a Congressman, Johnson became one of Trump's biggest defenders. Following the 2020 election, he told a Louisiana talk radio host about repeated conversations he had with Trump in which he expressed agreement with the outgoing president's spurious claims about the election being tainted by supposedly fraudulent voting patterns. He also led an effort to get 100+ Republicans to co-sign an amicus brief that sought to invalidate the results of four swing states Biden won.