House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he agreed “wholeheartedly” that the Trump administration could make sweeping cuts to federal spending without the approval of Congress, taking a position at odds with the Constitution’s separation of powers that undercuts his own branch of government.
“I’ve been asked so many times, ‘Aren’t you uncomfortable with this?’ No, I’m not,” Mr. Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, told reporters at the Capitol, adding: “There’s a presupposition in America that the commander in chief is going to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to withhold congressionally appropriated funds has posed a direct challenge to the Constitution, which gives Congress the sole the power to decide what programs deserve federal money and how much. It is the executive branch’s job to spend that money in keeping with Congress’s directions.
That basic principle has underpinned a flurry of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration in recent days by states, employee unions and other groups that were adversely affected by President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, grants, loans and other forms of federal assistance. A series of federal judges have blocked parts of those spending freezes with temporary restraining orders while the cases are argued.
Over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance sounded off on social media about the cases, arguing that the judges’ interventions were illegitimate.
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Mr. Vance wrote on X.
Under the Constitution’s separation of powers, courts review actions by the executive and legislative branches to make sure they are constitutional.
Mr. Johnson, a practicing constitutional lawyer before he ran for Congress, said he agreed with Mr. Vance, though he stopped short of suggesting the courts had no authority.
“Of course, the branches have to respect our constitutional order. But there’s a lot of game yet to be played,” Johnson said.
It was the latest comment by Mr. Johnson that diminished the role of the legislative branch, and was in keeping with recent moves he has made that have positioned him as a junior partner to Mr. Trump, rather than the powerful leader of a coequal branch of government.
Mr. Johnson argued that the administration’s actions were in line with common practice, noting that Congress often builds wiggle room into spending bills so that agencies can have flexibility in determining when and how to spend appropriated money.
But no administration is recent history has attempted to circumvent Congress to the degree that Mr. Trump has, with his efforts to decimate entire agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, with no notice to or input from lawmakers.
Mr. Johnson also argued that aides to Elon Musk, the billionaire tech magnate whom Mr. Trump deputized to make cuts to federal spending, were better positioned to make decisions on government funding than members of Congress are.
“What Elon and the DOGE effort is doing right now is what Congress has been unable to do in recent years, because the agencies have hidden some of this from us,” Mr. Johnson said, referring to Mr. Musk’s task force, known as the Department of Government Efficiency. While Congress must request records to conduct oversight, Mr. Johnson explained, Mr. Musk’s team has commandeered direct access — including to sensitive payment systems at the Treasury.
A federal judge restricted that access on Saturday, warning of “irreparable harm.”
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