Trump Cabinet appointments putting Mike Johnson’s 'wafer-thin' House majority 'in peril'

17 December 2024

Many Republicans have been bragging about the "trifecta" they enjoyed in the United States' 2024 election, which found President Donald Trump narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris while Republicans flipped the U.S. Senate and held their small majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

But former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan has cautioned against using language like "historic landslide" to describe the election results — as Trump won the popular vote by only about 1.5 percent (according to the Cook Political Report) and Republicans will have small majorities in the two branches of Congress.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), in fact, has been warning fellow House Republicans that because their majority will be so small in 2025, there will be little wiggle room when it comes to votes on bills.

Newsweek's Martha McHardy, in an article published on December 17, emphasizes that the "wafer-thin" Republican majority "in the House of Representatives is facing growing uncertainty as GOP members of Congress line up for Donald Trump's Cabinet."

On Monday, December 16, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Indiana) announced her plans to serve in the Department of Government (DOGE) — a new agency that Trump has proposed and asked Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and MAGA businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to head.

"Spartz's move could throw the slim Republican majority in the House into peril amid other GOP members of the House being tapped to serve in Trump's Cabinet," McHardy explains. "These include Matt Gaetz, who has already resigned after being tapped for the role of attorney general, a position he later withdrew from. Meanwhile, Reps. Mike Waltz of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York are in line for national security adviser and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, respectively."

McHardy adds, "Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon has also been nominated to serve as labor secretary. The Republicans are set to control the House in January's new Congress with a slim 220-seat majority to the Democrats' 215 seats, but passing legislation in the House requires a simple majority of 218 votes. If lawmakers are absent due to illness or other reasons, however, the majority threshold is lowered."

According to University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock, Johnson will need to be "diligent" when it comes to vote counts.

Bullock told Newsweek, "At a minimum, the GOP whip organization is going to have to be precise in its counts and diligent in getting members to the floor for roll calls. Against a united Democratic front, just a few Republican absences or members reluctant to back a particular bill could cost the GOP. We may see roll calls held open longer as leadership twists arms, drags reluctant members to the floor or awaits delayed flights from California."

Read Newsweek's full article at this link.

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