PoliticusUSA

PoliticusUSA

White House Admits Mike Johnson And John Thune Are Trump Puppets

The White House is admitting that it is Trump who is running Congress, not Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader John Thune.

Jason Easley's avatar
Jason Easley
Oct 13, 2025
∙ Paid

There has been talk that Republicans in the House and Senate have voluntarily surrendered their power to Donald Trump.

The US system of government depends on a separation of powers between three equal branches, but the nation has never before had a congressional majority that turned its power over to the president, as doing so would violate the system's very structure.

PoliticusUSA never bends the knee. We are 100% independent, so please support our work by becoming a subscriber.

Such a surrender by the legislative branch to the executive means that the congressional majority no longer represents the people who elect it.

A Congress under the control of the White House is a rubber stamp, not a check on the president's power.

The chatter that Trump is really the one running Congress was confirmed by a report in The Wall Street Journal by the White House itself:

Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an “iron fist,” according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial. When senior White House aide Stephen Miller recently held a party at the exclusive Ned’s Club to celebrate his 40th birthday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) showed up to honor Miller, the people said.

Bannon, who worked in the first Trump administration, attributed some of the faded resistance to Trump’s comeback after four years “in the wilderness,” a period that he said hardened Trump. “He’s doing things now he wouldn’t have ever considered the first time,” Bannon said. “He’s jackhammering away on levels you haven’t seen before.”

The government is shut down because Donald Trump’s White House wants it that way.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to PoliticusUSA to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 PoliticusUSA LLC · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture