Will Trump’s and Johnson’s ‘Little Secret’ Be Unveiled on January 6?

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s bizarre Madison Square Garden rally on October 27 offered a target-rich environment to anyone who wants to criticize his campaign and his followers for extremism. And although comedians’ racist “jokes” about Jews and Latinos drew the most attention, the boss himself made at least one eyebrow-raising remark during the course of his 80-minute speech. It came as he was acknowledging his friend House Speaker Mike Johnson:

As Politico Playbook noted, this remark could be interpreted as “a reference to the House settling a contested election.” It is universally understood that Johnson holds his gavel strictly at the sufferance of Trump. And it’s a plain fact that the then-obscure Louisianan was the 45th president’s congressional floor leader in seeking to overturn the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election on January 6, 2021. But it’s not just a matter of previous experience of an insurrectionary alliance between Trump and Johnson. Capitol Hill has been buzzing for a while (per a Politico report last month) about the Speaker’s potential role in another bid to overturn another election defeat, which Trump clearly intends to do if the opportunity arises:

[T]he following concerns have circulated on Capitol Hill:

— That Johnson could try to rewrite the rules that govern the Jan. 6 vote-counting session. For the past century or so, the two chambers have unanimously adopted boilerplate, bipartisan procedures for the count. Johnson could decide to try to write his own, inserting provisions that would open up new avenues to challenge the results, or simply refuse to adopt a process at all, creating ambiguity and doubt.

— That Johnson could muster enough Republicans to object to certain contested slates of electors — and, if the GOP also holds the Senate, possibly gather the votes to throw those slates out. If neither candidate receives 270 electoral votes, the House could have authority under the 12th Amendment to choose the winner.

— That Johnson could delay the vote-counting session. While the Jan. 6 date is written in law, it’s the speaker who has to call the House to order first. Democrats worry that Johnson could essentially push pause …

— That Johnson could challenge the Electoral Count Act

entirely. Under a novel legal theory, he could ask a court to rule that the law on the books cannot bind Congress from exercising its power under the Constitution.

While no one knows exactly what Trump has in mind as a plan-B strategy, other than declaring victory on Election Night (which everyone takes for granted he will do no matter what the results show), whatever he does will almost certainly have to culminate on January 6, when Congress again meets to confirm the presidential winner. All indications are that Johnson will be a much more reliable stooge for the would-be 47th president than his former running-mate, Mike Pence. Johnson, after all, avidly embraces Trump’s various “election interference” rationales for rejecting the 2024 election as “rigged.” And Johnson certainly didn’t quell any suspicions when asked about the “little secret” the two men share:

Even if you think Trump was just trolling everyone with the “little secret” talk, the earnest Christian nationalist Johnson isn’t known for his skill at playfully “owning the libs.” He really does seem to believe Trump is justified in whatever stunt he chooses to pull.

Specifics aside, it’s always a little disturbing when presidential candidates talk about “secret plans” on the eve of elections. Though he never actually used the term, history records that Richard Nixon’s insinuation that he had a “secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam (which he could not, of course, disclose before taking office because it would undermine his predecessor, LBJ) helped him win in 1968 thanks to antiwar voters who were subsequently shocked when the Tricky One immediately escalated the war and then kept it going until the very end of his presidency. It’s well known that Nixon nostalgia runs deep in MAGA land. So it wouldn’t be that surprising if Trump’s nasty little “secret” were one that enabled him to win an election he actually lost.