Johnson & Thune’s Long Surrender

Nine months into Trump’s second term, the House speaker and Senate majority leader are relinquishing many of their powers to the president. “I think it’s fair to say that most of our leadership class in this country has bent the knee,” one G.O.P. senator told me. But almost no Republicans dare push back in public.

Both Johnson, right, and Thune, left, have publicly been in lockstep with Trump from the moment he arrived for his second tour of Washington. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

Leigh Ann Caldwell

October 26, 2025

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Earlier this week, Mike Johnson marked his second anniversary as speaker with an unusual distinction: It has now been more than a month since the House of Representatives was open for business. For the fifth week in a row, he has told lawmakers to stay home until Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government. No hearings are being held, and no votes taken. Meanwhile, Johnson is still refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva, the representative-elect from Arizona, who won her seat on September 23.