| Though he has adopted a “nerd constitutional-law guy” persona, he is in lockstep with the law-flouting former President.  Photograph by Kent Nishimura for The New Yorker Some of the same Democrats who identify the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, as a dangerous theocrat also readily praise his manners and professional demeanor. (“There is a real niceness, a sweetness about the guy,” Representative Jamie Raskin says.) It was partly this disposition that helped Johnson slide from relative obscurity into the Speakership, last fall, after the House G.O.P. ripped up its org chart. But, as David D. Kirkpatrick writes in a deeply sourced and shrewd profile of Johnson for the upcoming issue of the magazine, the real clincher was when Donald Trump anointed him as chosen. The two men could hardly appear more different, yet Johnson has found ways of praising the former President while gesturing vaguely toward a kind of distance between them. (Contrasting his views on immigration slightly with Trump’s, he says, “We build walls because we love the people on the inside.”) As the former President continues a 2024 campaign premised mostly on vengeance, it will become increasingly difficult, Kirkpatrick notes, for Johnson “to square his decorous Christian persona with his support for Trump.” For now, Johnson is emphasizing their shared political goals. But, as Kirkpatrick points out, “Saying that you admire Trump for his policies . . . recalls the way men used to say that they read Playboy for the articles.” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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