Scrambling Mike Johnson Has a New Ploy to Stay in Power

Embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to make it a lot harder for his colleagues to get rid of him.

House Republicans unveiled a new set of rules Wednesday that will govern the incoming 119th Congress, including a rule that would make it more difficult to oust whoever is in charge.

The key change would raise the threshold for a motion to vacate, by which any lawmaker can force a vote on ousting the speaker. Currently, only one person needs to file a motion to vacate. But under the new rule, a lawmaker from the majority party must be joined by eight other co-signers from that party.

So if the rule passes, Johnson can only be ousted by nine Republicans.

This is a significant change in proceedings, as historically motions to vacate can come from any individual lawmaker from any party.

“Their proposed changes would, for the first time in American history, shield the speaker from accountability to the entire chamber,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, told Axios.

“The American people did not vote for whatever the hell this is—and you better believe that Democrats will not let Republicans turn the House of Representatives into a rubber stamp for their extremist policies,” McGovern added.

This change comes as the result of a deal struck in November, but takes on a new, bitter flavor, as Johnson has come under fire from members of his own party. It seems that Johnson could be in major trouble Friday, when he is set to be reelected or ousted from his position. It might only take two GOP defections to sink his bid, according to The Hill.

Congress will also vote on its new rules package Friday, which would also dissolve the Diversity and Inclusion Office and change the name of the House Oversight Committee, among other shallow Republican priorities. If Johnson is reelected and the new rules approved, then he may have found a way to keep his gavel indefinitely.

Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to keep his witness list top secret just blew up in his face.

U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman said on Monday that the court had “neither directed nor permitted” Giuliani’s December 23 witness list “to be filed under seal,” ordering the list to be unsealed for the public docket. The filing includes a retired priest who played a critical role in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in New York. It also named Monsignor Alan Placa, Ryan Medrano, Michael Ragusa, and Giuliani’s rumored girlfriend Maria Ryan, according to Law & Crime.

Giuliani is headed to trial next month to determine whether he must hand over his multimillion-dollar Florida condominium to a pair of 2020 Georgia election workers he repeatedly defamed while pushing Donald Trump’s lie about a stolen election. Giuliani owes the mother-daughter duo, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, some $150 million in damages, but he’s still working to worm his way out of the payments.

Earlier this year, Giuliani claimed that the condo was his permanent residence, granting it homestead protection from debt collection proceedings under state law. But his legal opposition has argued that Giuliani was less than forthcoming during the discovery process, suggesting that the disgraced politico wasn’t being honest about how he utilizes the property.

In November, the former gang-busting federal prosecutor tried on a new legal defense to keep his stuff, arguing in a Manhattan courthouse that he couldn’t possibly hand over his assets to Freeman and Moss because he simply didn’t know where they were. Some of those assets include his Manhattan penthouse, a famously immovable object, as well as his Mercedes convertible, which he was seen driving in Florida on Election Day. In response, Judge Liman said that the idea that neither Giuliani nor anyone else in the world has knowledge about the location of his assets was “farcical.”

The ex–New York mayor has been besieged with legal woes since he opted to join the MAGA movement.

Over the past couple of years, the former Trump attorney unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy, lost his accountant over his insurmountable debts, begged Trump for help settling his seven-figure legal fees (he refused), had his WABC radio show canceled for spewing 2020 election lies, and miserably started his own coffee brand, “Rudy Coffee,” in an effort to funnel in some extra cash. He ultimately lost his bankruptcy case due to his outlandish spending habits, with the presiding New York judge branding the former city mayor a “recalcitrant debtor.”

Giuliani is also under the gun for a lawsuit from his former legal representation, who accused him of failing to pay his bill and allegedly only dishing out $214,000 of nearly $1.6 million in legal expenses. Giuliani, meanwhile, claimed he was stiffed by his favorite client, Trump, to the tune of millions of dollars.

But wait, there’s more: The MAGA henchman is also one of 19 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case (in limbo but not yet dead) and was named in April in an Arizona indictment charging another slew of Republican officials and Trump allies for their alleged involvement in a scheme to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results. In October, an Arizona judge torched a legal filing Giuliani made in the case, ruling that the ex–Trump aide had “not one scintilla” of evidence to question the legitimacy of a grand jury assigned to his lawsuit. And Giuliani’s own legal representation in the Freeman and Moss case ditched him in November, declaring in a motion in federal court that they had reached a “fundamental disagreement” with Giuliani.

Democrats lost the White House, the House, and the Senate—but that’s apparently not enough cause for them to rejigger their playbook.

Earlier this month, Representative Gerry Connolly bested New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to become the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. It was a battle of establishment Democratic politics versus new wave progressivism, and the Democratic caucus opted to vote against the future of the party by a margin of 47 votes.

But when pressed on why a 74-year-old with a recent esophagus cancer diagnosis deserved a shot at arguably one of the most influential positions in the House, Connolly couldn’t muster up a response deeper than having paid his dues. Speaking with CNN on Monday, Connolly’s rationale boiled down to simple entitlement.

“The decision about leadership ought to always be based on a proven record, skill set, competence, capability, and your plan for moving forward,” Connolly told the network. “I’ve never had my chance to be a ranking member or a chairman of a full committee. This is it.”

“I’ve got the bona fides and the credentials over 16 years that my colleagues looked at, examined, validated, and decided that’s what we need,” he continued. “And that’s what the Democratic caucus overwhelmingly decided to do.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reportedly entrenched in the process of getting Connolly to lead the key investigative body for the purpose of keeping Ocasio-Cortez away from the fulcrum of power.

Two more House Republicans have voiced their reluctance to back House Speaker Mike Johnson in his bid to hold on to his leadership spot.

During an appearance on Fox Business Tuesday, House Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy said he wasn’t sold on backing Johnson.

“I remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president’s agenda,” Roy said, according to Punchbowl News.

Representative Rich McCormick also said he was not solid on his support of Johnson during an appearance on NewsNation Tuesday. When asked whether he planned to support the embattled speaker, he replied, “Most likely.”

“We have decisions to be making, and we have to discuss with each other—about 10 people who are leaning,” McCormick said. “And what that means is we want reassurances. I’m not really sure we’re taking the debt seriously. I’m not really sure we’re doing the right things.”

At least three other Republicans already expressed their skepticism of Johnson earlier this week: Representatives Thomas Massie, Victoria Spartz, and Andy Harris, who chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus.

That’s one too many votes Johnson can’t afford to lose in the speaker election, set to take place on Friday.

The world’s richest man has decided to change his digital look, opting to resurrect a dated image that the Anti-Defamation League flagged as a hate symbol in 2016.

Musk’s rebranded account began posting to his 209 million followers on X under the name Kekius Maximus on Tuesday, a blend between “kek”—a gaming variant of “LOL”—and Maximus Decimus Meridius, the main character in Ridley Scott’s 2000 action film Gladiator.

“Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE,” Musk posted.

Musk’s memeified alter ego also includes an archaic reference in the annals of internet history: Pepe the Frog, a character that has existed on internet message boards and blogs like 4chan and Tumblr since 2008. In 2015, Pepe was co-opted by the far right, and recent usage of the image in the U.S. has become synonymous with antisemites and white nationalists and harkens back to its presence at the forefront of violent movements like the Charlottesville riot and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Under his new guise, Musk decided to attack Wikipedia, resharing a three-year-old clip of the digital encyclopedia’s co-founder Larry Sanger torching his creation for going “woke.”

“Don’t take it from me (I’m just a frog after all), take it from the co-founder of Wikipedia,” Musk wrote under his new pseudonym.

(Sanger wasn’t amused by the dredged-up interview. Instead, he torched the billionaire for refusing to refund an “ineffective annual subscription” to X. “Tell your staff to refund my money, Elon,” Sanger wrote.)

Musk’s alleged burner account, Adrian Dittman, also got in on the tired meme, preemptively toying with the idea that journalists would legitimately refer to the incoming Department of Government Efficiency co-chair via his chosen joke title.

“Imagine you’re a journalist who’s writing about Elon on X and it goes: ‘Elon Musk, aka ‘Kekius Maximus’ on X…” Dittman posted Tuesday.

Donald Trump claimed Monday that he’s already begun making moves toward making Canada the fifty-first state, and nobody’s excited.

Trump shared a screenshot of a post from Leading Report, a right-wing website that offers some news, some misinformation, and lots of conspiracy theories. Now, it seemingly reported a piece of otherwise unreported ”news” that was instantly elevated by the president-elect.

“Kevin O’Leary says he will go to Mar-a-Lago to ‘start the narrative’ about merging Canada with the United States because ‘we don’t want Trudeau negotiating this deal,’” a post last week stated.

“Think about the power of combining the two economies,” the post added, listing possible benefits to combining the two massive nations, including a common currency, open trade, and an “EU-type passport.”

Trump offered no comment or caption on the post, but reshared it to his followers on Monday.

O’Leary, a Canadian businessman known for Shark Tank, praised the idea of making Canada the fifty-first state during an appearance on Fox News last Friday.

“I think this is a great idea, and I think the potential is massive, and the opportunity is huge,” O’Leary said. “I think at the end of the day, Canadians and Americans, their DNA is the same in terms of what they believe in … freedom.”

Trump’s ravings about Canada began as a joke in response to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s warning that Trump’s plan to enforce steep tariffs would cripple both their economies. Rather than actually engage with the issue, Trump joked that Canada should just become the fifty-first state.

Now he’s taking that joke too far, and likely putting some money in Mr. Wonderful’s pocket.

“Thank you, MAGA, for turning the US into the laughingstock of the world,” wrote the X account Republicans Against Trump in response to Trump’s post.

Others pointed out that Trump was once again moving to work alongside an unelected billionaire, rather than an actual representative of the country he hopes to take over.

Some speculated that Trump was only interested in trolling world leaders and playing with his map.

And others were just taken aback by how stupid the entire thing is.

Donald Trump has two words for his controversial Cabinet nominees: Be quiet.

The president-elect’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, issued a frank missive to Trump’s nominees on Sunday, warning the cohort to tone down their social media activity ahead of their Senate confirmation hearings.

“While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo obtained by the New York Post.

“Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,” she continued.

Wiles—dubbed the “Ice Maiden”—did not specify in her memo if she was responding to any singular incident. But one Trump transition source told the Post it wasn’t related to the heated debate between the “tech-right” and far-right factions of Trump’s base over H-1B visas.

Incoming Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, co-chairs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have found themselves at the epicenter of a digital brawl over their ardent defense of the work visa program. Last week, Musk claimed that H-1B visas offer a solution to a “permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent” in the U.S. Far-right opponents of immigration—and Musk’s position—claim the H-1B visa disincentivizes companies from hiring American labor.

The H-1B visa program has an annual cap set by Congress, admitting 65,000 foreign workers per year. In 2023, it was estimated that there were more than 700,000 H-1B visa holders in the U.S., according to data from the American Immigration Council.

Republicans are in a tight position to push Trump’s controversial picks through the Senate process. Assuming that all Democrats will vote against Trump’s nominees, the president-elect can only afford to lose three Republican votes to squeeze his candidates into the executive branch.

Some of Trump’s more contentious Cabinet picks—such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard—have noticeably quieted their social media presence since Christmas.

Elon Musk has been “renting” a place to stay at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and he didn’t leave until Christmas, according to recent reporting by The New York Times. Musk is expected to return in the next week.

Since election night, Musk has been lodging at the Banyan, one of the cottages closest to the main house on Mar-a-Lago, where Trump and his family stay. While other members of Trump’s circle have also stayed on the property, none have been as constant as the billionaire CEO, sources close to the situation told the Times.   

Trump has apparently been bragging that the world’s richest man is “renting” one of his properties. But no one actually knows if Trump will end up charging Musk for the stay. The Banyan usually rents for around $2,000 a night. Trump reportedly has raised the annual membership fee at Mar-a-Lago to $1 million. 

This underscores how close Trump and Musk have grown this year, and especially since the election. The Times noted that Trump posted on Truth Social a message meant privately for Musk, which read: “Where are you? When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe,’ Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT.”

Other members of Trump’s inner circle have griped about this bromance, complaining that Musk is overstepping boundaries. Musk has attempted to smooth things over with posts on X, but the “President Musk” meme persists.  

Laura Loomer still isn’t done with Elon Musk.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room, the anti-immigration activist on Monday torched the billionaire as a “welfare queen” and technocrat with outsize influence on U.S. politics thanks to his ongoing relationship with Donald Trump.

“If you have a bunch of tech bros with billions of dollars and direct unfettered access to the vice president and the president of the United States, and then they are also very cordial with our adversaries as in China and Iran—we see that Elon Musk is having these meetings off the books with Iranian officials, with Chinese officials—what does that mean for us?” Loomer posited.

The self-described “white advocate” has been in a social media brawl with the Tesla CEO for the last week over Musk’s ardent defense of the H-1B work visa program, which he claimed offers a solution to a “permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent” in the U.S. Far-right opponents of the immigration program—and Musk’s position—claim that the H-1B visa disincentivizes companies to hire American labor.

In several posts, Loomer accused Musk of having “bought his way into MAGA,” claimed he was a pawn of China, and said that the “divorce” between the “stage 5 clinger” and President-elect Donald Trump was on the horizon.

That was apparently enough back talk to strip Loomer of her verified status on the site—a loss that, for her, warranted a public appeal to Musk to reinstate her blue check. Loomer has been banned from practically every other social media platform for her incendiary and violent rhetoric.

The H-1B visa program has an annual cap set by Congress, admitting 65,000 foreign workers per year. In 2023, it was estimated that there were more than 700,000 H-1B visa holders in the U.S., according to data from the American Immigration Council.

The German government has accused Elon Musk of using his platform X to influence their election.

“It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election,” German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann told reporters on Monday. She added that Musk is free to opine on German politics: “After all, freedom of opinion also covers the greatest nonsense.”

“Chancellor Oaf Schitz or whatever his name is will lose,” Musk said in response on X, referring to current German chancellor and center-left Social Democrat Olaf Scholz.

Musk has been making his support for Germany’s right-wing, anti-migration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party clear for weeks. Earlier this month, the billionaire wrote, “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Last week, he wrote an opinion column in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper endorsing the party, calling it the “last spark of hope.”

“The AfD, even though it is described as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment,” Musk wrote. “Portraying the AfD as far-right is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on!”

The paper’s head opinions editor resigned after this was published.

Musk was also extremely influential as an advocate for President-elect Donald Trump this election cycle, and will likely continue to be as he co-leads DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy.

As for Germany, the results of his meddling are still unknown. Their election will be held on February 23, 2025.