Is Trump now the ‘Shadow Speaker’ of the House?

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) hit the right tones in his speech after being sworn in as second in line to the presidency. He was smooth. He was conciliatory to Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), telling Jeffries he was looking forward to finding common ground. The new Speaker talked about trust and transparency and delivering for the American people. He talked a great game.

But his history speaks horribly about who he really is, what he is about, and what he could be capable of doing in the wake of the 2024 presidential election as Speaker of the House. The fact that he was resoundingly elected speaks just as badly about today’s Republican Party.

Make no mistake — the GOP just elected a leading MAGA extremist and one of the most egregious election deniers there is as Speaker. Johnson was the author and architect of the Texas lawsuit that tried to overturn a fair and free election in 2020, recruiting more than 60 percent of the House Republican caucus to sign on to the effort to nullify presidential election results in four key swing states — a move he said was personally approved by then-President Trump. He was also a key architect of the Republican effort to object to President Biden’s election certification on the infamous day of Jan. 6, 2021. The exact ideas that the new GOP Speaker of the House helped push was foundational to the violent riots that ensued and caused the attack on the Capitol.

So would it be a great leap to suppose that, as unassuming as the new Speaker seems, his pivotal role in trying to give Trump what he most wanted makes him a mere MAGA puppet? Should the American people be concerned that Johnson’s Speakership is akin to Trump being a “Shadow Speaker”?

They should. But Trump was always likely to be controlling the strings of any GOP Speaker elected with zero support from Democrats. The moderates in the Republican conference lack backbone and couldn’t find the courage to work with Democrats to elect a Speaker more in the mainstream of American values. Instead, they gave the country someone extreme — and not just because he denied the 2020 election.

Turns out Speaker Johnson is a radical on many issues. He espouses so-called “white replacement theory” and uses the violent language of “invasion” when talking about migrants who come to the United States fleeing violence and dictatorships. Trump has been a pervasive perpetrator of this pernicious language, which has led to brutal and deadly attacks on Latino Americans. He should be thrilled that the new Speaker is a true believer in this dangerous conspiracy theory.

The new Speaker wants a national federal abortion ban, which is out of the mainstream even within his own party. And while Trump is now pretending to walk away from his own extremism on reproductive rights, he still boasts in front of GOP audiences that he is responsible for the overturning of Roe v. Wade by placing on the court the three conservative justices who did just that.

But Speaker Johnson goes further than just wanting a federal abortion ban. He weirdly blames women’s unborn children for Republican efforts (in his mind, obligations) to gut Social Security and Medicare. He stated during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that if women could be counted on to churn out more workers for our economy, then Republicans would not be obligated to cut these social programs.

What is lost in this last point — given the insanity of the argument he is making against women — is that Speaker Johnson is also a huge proponent of slashing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), four wildly successful and popular programs that voters across the spectrum want to make sure their elected leaders not just save, but strengthen.

Between 2019 and 2021, Johnson was chair of the far-right Republican Study Committee and supported draconian cuts in these programs to the tune of $2 trillion for Medicare, $3 trillion for Medicaid and the ACA, and $750 billion for Social Security. These massive cuts are not in line with most of the American people — but let us remember that Trump also supported cuts in these programs and tried and failed to repeal the ACA.

Speaker Johnson also has an extreme anti-LGBTQ record, supporting anti-sodomy laws, slamming the Supreme Court for decriminalizing sexual relations between same-sex partners, and describing homosexuality as unnatural. The Trump Administration weakened LGBTQ protections every chance it got.

In so many of the MAGA positions, Speaker Johnson will carry Trump’s water, to the detriment and danger of the country. At least former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had a fleeting moment of decency when he took to the floor in the wake of Jan. 6 and blamed Trump for the insidious attacks on the Capitol. Sure, he took it back quickly, but it was there. Speaker Johnson has had no such brush with truth or reality. Neither has Trump.

Judging from his past record, the damage Speaker Johnson can do to our democracy in the wake of a contested 2024 election could kill this great American experiment.

But at this moment, Speaker Johnson has a rare opportunity to prove everyone wrong — including Democrats who are piling on as to what a MAGA extremist Trump puppet he will be.

He started out his Speakership with some pleasant words, but he will now have to govern for real — if he can, if his MAGA wing and the Shadow Speaker let him. His dulcimer tones will not be enough to prove he is worthy of his new title.

Maria Cardona is a longtime Democratic strategist; a principal at Dewey Square Group, a Washington-based political consulting agency; and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her @MariaTCardona.