Trump has faced down Republican dissidents in Congress

REPUBLICANS ON CAPITOL HILLGOP have a reputation for infighting and not getting much done. January 3rd, the first day of the 119th Congress, featured plenty of infighting. Surprisingly, the House also managed to get something done—the formerly simple process of electing their leader. Yet the uneasy victory of Mike Johnson, the House speaker, looks tame compared with the legislative fights to come.The record will show that Mr Johnson won near-unanimous support from his party on the first ballot, a major improvement over the 15 rounds of voting it took for his predecessor, , two years ago. But the win required months of lobbying, and help from Donald Trump. Uncertainty prevailed until a few minutes before Mr Johnson secured the gavel.Every Democrat backed Hakeem Jeffries, their leader. Three Republicans initially chose someone besides Mr Johnson, who could only afford to lose one vote given the Republicans’ . And six conservative hardliners at first chose not to vote at all. If that dynamic held, Mr Jeffries would have been elected speaker despite the Democrats’ minority of seats in the chamber. So the non-voters grudgingly announced that they would back Mr Johnson—registering discontent, but not enough to elect a Democrat speaker.The proceedings paused as Mr Johnson huddled with two of the “no” votes. (The third was considered hopeless, having said “You can pull all my fingernails out, you can shove bamboo up in them….I am not voting for Mike Johnson.”) One member passed her mobile phone to the group. It was Mr Trump, on the golf course, imploring the members to not hold up his legislative agenda. While Mr Trump didn’t threaten them, they agreed to change course. Some 15 minutes later, Mr Johnson was elected speaker.Conservative hardliners brought a range of complaints about Mr Johnson similar to those that doomed Mr McCarthy. They see him as a spendthrift who doesn’t cater enough to the needs of their slash-and-burn wing of the party. Although there is seemingly no budget they are willing to support, they criticise him for relying on Democratic votes to approve must-pass legislation. The firebrands’ demands typically revolve around arcane rule changes to increase their own influence and undermine last-minute dealmaking. Yet to secure their votes Johnson only offered general assurances rather than a quid pro quo.Several insurgents, including some who eventually voted for Mr Johnson straight away, signed a letter on Friday declaring that they backed Mr Johnson to ensure the certification of Mr Trump’s presidential victory, and “despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track record”. They outlined policy demands and procedural changes they would like to see, even including good-governance reforms like a ban on stockmarket trading by members of Congress. The letter concluded “there is always room to negotiate on so-called ‘leadership’ positions” and demanded the House get to work. In other words, the insurgents’ support could not be taken for granted in future.That will be important in a busy year. Republicans have a government budget to pass, a debt ceiling to raise and defence spending to approve. And that is a bare minimum before they tackle ambitious immigration and energy legislation and a complex renewal of Mr Trump’s first-term tax cuts. All of these challenges contain plenty of opportunities to alienate conservatives and moderates alike, meaning that every major vote could be as dramatic as Mr Johnson’s investiture.The first day of Congress no doubt was a win for the speaker, but one particularly ominous fact hung over the proceedings. Nine Republicans showed a willingness to buck the speaker, which happens to be exactly the number required to force a vote on whether to oust him under new rules approved by the House leadership. Mr Johnson is in control for now, but members of his own party have demonstrated that they will not simply keep him around for loyalty’s sake.