Mike Johnson defends Trump's aggressive start, declaring 'everything is on the table'

DORAL, Fla. — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended President Donald Trump’s slew of controversial executive orders and actions Monday, calling it a “new moment to re-evaluate everything the federal government does" and saying, "Everything is on the table."

Addressing Trump’s decision over the weekend to fire 18 inspectors general at various federal agencies, Johnson said: “Sometimes you need a fresh look.” Pressed by NBC News about Trump’s aggressive migrant deportations, Johnson said that voters gave Trump a “mandate to fix this problem” and that “everyone can take a deep breath.”

And about Trump’s recent comments that the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to be overhauled or perhaps eliminated, Johnson, whose home state, Louisiana, has a long history of hurricane damage, pointed to “frustration” with FEMA leadership and said, “The president is right to assess that.”

Johnson also said he supported Trump’s recent statement that California should not receive wildfire disaster aid unless it adopts voter ID laws. It is a “commonsense notion,” he said.

“Something has changed because there is a new sheriff in town,” Johnson told reporters shortly before Trump addressed House Republicans here at their annual issues conference at Trump Doral National, his golf club and resort in Miami.

“I think we are entering a new era of government. And that is when the president says he wants to make the government more efficient and effective and we say we want to limit the size and scope of government, it means that everything is on the table for reevaluation,” Johnson continued, flanked by his GOP leadership team.

“This is a new moment for us to re-evaluate everything that the federal government does. And FEMA is in crosshairs,” he said.

Johnson has been a top Trump ally on Capitol Hill, so it is not unusual for him to defend Trump. But he appeared to be especially careful Monday not to show any daylight with Trump given that he was just a few hundred yards away on the Doral property and Johnson planned to introduce him just a couple of hours later.

House Republicans will spend the next three days at Doral discussing and debating their 2025 legislative agenda. At the center of the debate will be how to move forward on the GOP’s so-called reconciliation package focused on renewing Trump tax cuts, lowering energy costs and enacting tough immigration policies.

Johnson said the House Budget Committee will mark up a new budget, the first step to “unlock and open the reconciliation process.”

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“That will be where the lion’s share of these campaign promises that we made are fulfilled,” he said, adding that lawmakers will be doing “hard work” at the retreat “negotiating and coming to consensus with one another.”