Mike Johnson Stands In As Trump's Gagged Mouth.
Complete with saying an "atrocity" is being committed against Trump. No, the atrocity is sitting at the defense table.
Just in itself, this craven act is so despicable not even MAGA higher-ups like it. As if things couldn’t get more disgusting, the most soullessly ambitious sleazes in American politics—including VP hopeful JD Vance—rushed to Trump’s aid today, warming the pews in the courtroom to give support to Trump in the form of the attempted intimidation of Michael Cohen.
But Johnson takes the cake. Painting the trial as subjecting Trump to an atrocity, the ultra-right-wing Dominionist, who believes God made him Speaker of the House, failed to give any specifics in the face of overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence that Trump committed dozens of acts of fraud in trying to silence a porn-star lover so he could defraud the American people in the run-up to his first presidential election. Involved? The National Inquirer, Stormy Daniels, Playmate of the Month Karen MacDougal, ex-con and fixer Michael Cohen, and a raft of accountants, investigators, prosecutors and defense lawyers in a spectacle that featured another nauseating testimonial about Trump’s sexual encounters. One observer said it felt like a Mafia trial. No shock there.
Our peerless (she said acidly) Speaker of the House just went on national TV outside the courthouse to do what Trump, under threat of jail if he violates a gag order again, can’t do: SHOOT OFF HIS FAT MOUTH IN PUBLIC. So Mr. I’m So Godly, who styles himself as the “New Moses,” is doing it for him.
But what Johnson is also doing is ensuring that America’s Evangelical Radical Right stays loyal to Trump. After all, look what he’s done for him. In just one term, he stuffed an already off-its-noodle Supreme Court with Brett Kavanaugh—suspected of a college-era rape. He sobbed and whined his way through his confirmation hearing and then socked it to women in Dobbs. Then there’s Amy Coney Barrett of the ultra-secretive sect People of Praise, under fire for its handling of sexual abuse complaints. She was sworn in a day after promising Congress she wouldn’t try to roll back Roe v. Wade. Her pants are still smoldering on that one. And then there’s Neal Gorsuch, about whom Interfaith Alliance president Rabbi Jack Moline said:
“Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate. Unfortunately, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch seems to believe otherwise.
“As a federal judge he ruled on two of the most consequential religious freedom cases in recent years, and both times he opposed genuine religious freedom. Instead, he empowered groups seeking to force their religious beliefs onto others.
It absolutely does not matter to these people—other than its being an annoyance and moderately embarrassing—that the “neon God they made” (Simon & Garfunkel) is a civilly convicted sexual abuser, that he stashed SCIF files in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, one with such a flimsy door the lock could be picked with a hairpin, that he incited a riot to overturn a fair election and lied about the polling and still does.
That’s because the goal of Mike Johnson the Cult Radical Right is the overthrow of American democracy with Project 2025 and the Seven Mountains quest. They will be fine with having Trump declare himself Dictator on Day One, just like they’re fine with women dying without medically necessary abortions. They will be fine with Trump jailing his critics and shooting his political opponents and deporting 11,000,000 migrants so long as what results is white, patriarchal, and conservative Christian.
Johnson visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago less than two weeks ago. They had their photos taken together. And they made a deal. What Trump promised Johnson we don’t know. But it was big. And now, Johnson is doing his bidding by channeling his fat mouth—and making sure that the MAGAns who elected him last time stick with the program.
How will Christianity possibly survive the tragedy that has befallen it with these people, who substitute the worst possible elements of the Old Testament for the soaring, radically loving beauty of the New?
Where is the Knight of the Mirrors when we need him?
For a backgrounder on Mike Johnson, go here:
Mike Johnson Summits the Mt. Olympus of Ego: Sees Himself as the "New Moses"
You can’t beat this for hubris—and you can’t match it for openness of intent—though Mike Johnson certainly meant to keep this hidden from people dedicated to the separation of Church and State. For these are comments Mike Johnson made at the gala of The National Association of Christian Lawmakers, which awarded Johnson the American Patriot Award for Chr…