‘A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity,’ Speaker Mike Johnson Says of Trump’s Agenda

Speaking Thursday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson discussed the midterm elections and the Make America Great Again agenda, promising to secure the border, to prevent the Trump tax cuts from expiring, to “take a blowtorch to the regulatory state,” and to boost energy production in the country. 

“Now, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Johnson said, explaining that Republicans need to show that conservative policies are better for the American people. When asked about the 2026 midterm elections, the Louisiana lawmaker promised to buck the trend of the party in power losing control of Congress in off-year elections.

“We are going to defy history,” Johnson predicted.

He cited the fact that there are several House Democrats who are facing reelection in congressional districts won by President Donald Trump. “We have a very favorable landscape,” the speaker told the audience at the conference in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Johnson went on to discuss the historic demographic shift in the presidential election and how Democrats currently appear not to have a leader.

“I wish I could explain the Democrats. They’re just enraged by everything,” he said, characterizing the Democratic Party as uninterested in cutting government spending, despite the financial debts the federal government is leaving for future Americans.

“I think we need to pay down the credit card,” Johnson said of the mind-boggling $36 trillion national debt. 

The House speaker praised Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“What Elon and the team are doing is what Congress has not had the ability to do,” he said, noting that DOGE was exposing massive waste, fraud, and abuse, and that it was time to bring back the American Founding Fathers’ vision of a limited government. 

“He [Elon Musk] is right over the target,” Johnson declared. 

The Louisiana lawmaker also touted Trump’s winning the popular vote as well as the electoral vote. He explained that GOP members of Congress see the impressive election victory as a mandate and promised to enshrine Trump’s executive orders into law.

“We are going to codify so much of what he is doing so that the next team cannot unwind it,” Johnson said of possible future liberal Democrat presidents.

Johnson appeared hopeful at the breadth of policy changes that the unified Republican control of the federal government would be able to accomplish.

“Now, we have an opportunity to fix everything,” he said.

With respect to foreign policy, the speaker said, it’s important that Ukraine hold a presidential election, which has been postponed since last spring. He also said there was no appetite for additional U.S. funding of Ukraine. He said he had asked Republican leaders to give Trump room to negotiate with the Russians and Ukrainians to end their war. “You’ve got to give him room to operate and do what he does,” Johnson said.

Johnson expressed delight at Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., having voted for Kash Patel to be FBI director and appreciation for new Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

“We are very unified,” he said of Republicans in the House and Senate. 

Johnson contended that it was a power play by Democrats to throw open the border over the past four years in order to bring in potential new Democratic voters. He expressed disappointment that now-former President Joe Biden did not seem to care about the human trafficking and fentanyl smuggling as a result of the open southern border. 

Johnson, who has already initiated changes in Congress, is poised to become one of the most influential House speakers in American history if he can codify into law key provisions of Trump’s agenda. 

“Thank God that President Trump is back in the White House,” he said. 

Reacting to Johnson’s speech, CPAC attendees were impressed.

“Speaker Mike Johnson has the best speaking voice and personable nature of any speaker in my lifetime. He has a complete command of vocal, verbal, nonverbal communication like a professional speaker,” Robert Miller said, adding, “I think it was a great speech, and I was happy to hear it.”

Calum Crichton from Scotland said Johnson seemed positive about America’s future.

“I think he just was very positive about the future. I think that’s really what I take from it. I don’t think America’s had that for a long period of time, particularly for the last four years,” Crichton said.

“I think it’s very good that, hopefully, we are no longer fronting that [Russia-Ukraine] war and that it hopefully comes to a peaceful end. I think that’s what’s good for Europe. I think that’s what’s good for the United States,” Joanna Johnson said. “So, again, optimistic about that as well, hopefully coming to close, and so our dollars are America first and that we no longer lose life in war”

Moira Gleason contributed to this report.