Mike Johnson seethed with 'anger' as Trump blew up GOP midterm lifeline: report

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was seething with "anger" after Trump scrapped a housing bill Republicans were counting on as their midterm lifeline, a source told POLITICO.

President Donald Trump cancelled the signing of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on Wednesday morning — an hour before he was due at the Capitol. The bill had cleared Congress with a veto-proof majority: 358-32 in the House, 85-5 in the Senate.

"Today's Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency," Trump posted on Truth Social.

The post landed as Johnson was at a House GOP press conference touting the bill. He was, per POLITICO's source, "f—ing surprised and angry." The speaker himself doesn't curse.

POLITICO's Playbook Podcast dubbed Johnson "Mr. Fixit" — the guy who patches things up with Trump when the president blows up the Republican agenda. This was no exception.

"And I think that's largely because he's been so deferential to the president," POLITICO politics reporter Will Steakin said on the podcast.

Republicans had been counting on the housing bill as a rare concrete win to take to voters ahead of the 2026 midterms, with affordability dominating the political landscape. NBC News reported GOP leaders had struggled all year to rack up legislative wins with their thin margins. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) laughed when reporters asked him about the cancellation. "I guess I would say at this point I don't have any observations about that," he said.

Johnson raced to the White House on Thursday after Trump's surprise cancellation rattled the GOP. ABC News reported the meeting ran more than three hours.

After meeting with Trump, Johnson said the bill is now headed to the White House, and he expects the president to sign it.