Johnson’s Public Panic Signals Deeper Trump Erosion, as G.O.P. Scrambles to Steady Ship Before Midterms

By Jonathan Weisman and Catie Edmondson Washington — Dec. 3, 2025

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the soft-spoken Louisiana Republican who has spent his speakership tethered to President Donald J. Trump’s every whim, betrayed rare public alarm on Tuesday as a cascade of new polls showed the president’s approval rating sinking to 37 percent — its lowest point of the second term — and Republican generic ballot leads evaporating in swing districts. In a tense, 11-minute exchange with reporters outside his Capitol office, Mr. Johnson’s usual placid demeanor cracked: voice trembling, eyes darting, he warned that the party was “at a precipice” and pleaded for “message discipline” from a White House that has spent the past week lurching from one self-inflicted crisis to another. The spectacle — captured on C-SPAN and clipped into millions of views — has crystallized a growing dread among Republicans that Mr. Trump’s personal brand, once the party’s greatest asset, is now dragging the entire G.O.P. toward a 2026 midterm reckoning.

The numbers are brutal. A Quinnipiac survey released Tuesday morning put Mr. Trump’s approval at 37 percent, with disapproval at 59 — a 22-point underwater margin driven by independent voters fleeing over the 43-day government shutdown, the East Wing demolition furor, and the escalating FCC crackdown on late-night television. An internal National Republican Congressional Committee memo, leaked to Axios hours later, showed the generic congressional ballot tied at 44-44, with suburban women — the decisive 2024 bloc — breaking for Democrats by 18 points. In the 31 most vulnerable Republican-held districts, the average Trump approval now sits at 34 percent, down from 51 percent in July. “We’re bleeding altitude fast,” the memo concluded, using an aviation metaphor that quickly trended on X under #GOPCrashLanding.

Mr. Johnson’s public unraveling began when a reporter asked whether he still believed, as he told donors in October, that Mr. Trump’s coattails would “carry us to a 30-seat majority.” Visibly flustered, the speaker gripped the podium and replied: “Look, the president is fighting battles the American people elected him to fight. But we have to be honest — the shutdown hurt real families, the East Wing optics were… unfortunate, and the FCC stuff is feeding a narrative we don’t want. We’re at a precipice. We need unity, not chaos.” When pressed on whether Mr. Trump should dial back his Truth Social attacks on comedians and former first ladies, Mr. Johnson’s voice cracked: “I’ve spoken to the president. He hears us. We’re all on the same team.” He then abruptly ended the session, leaving aides to shepherd him away as cameras captured a whisper: “We’re going to lose the House.”

Inside the Capitol, the panic was palpable. Leadership aides described a speaker who spent Tuesday morning on the phone with Mr. Trump, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, begging for a “reset week” — no more late-night call-ins, no more gold-ballroom photo ops, no more threats to revoke broadcast licenses. One senior Republican lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Mr. Johnson confessed in a closed-door conference meeting: “If we don’t change the subject to kitchen-table issues by January, we’re toast.” The plea came as four more House Republicans — all from purple districts — privately signaled they may not seek re-election, citing exhaustion with “Trump’s daily meltdowns.”

The White House response was defiant but revealing. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the polls as “fake news from the same people who said Trump would lose in 2024,” while Mr. Trump himself posted a midday Truth Social barrage: “MAGA MIKE PANICKING because the LOSER MEDIA says my numbers are down? WRONG! Best economy ever, strongest border ever — RINOs want WEAKNESS! Primaries coming for quitters!” Yet aides leaked that Mr. Trump, watching Mr. Johnson’s presser on loop at Mar-a-Lago, erupted at advisers: “Mike’s making me look weak — fix him!” By evening, the president had reluctantly agreed to a joint Rose Garden event next week on “affordability,” a concession aides framed as evidence he is “listening.”

Democrats pounced with undisguised glee. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., replayed Mr. Johnson’s “precipice” clip on the floor, declaring: “The speaker just admitted what we’ve known for months — Trumpism is a sinking ship, and Republicans are jumping overboard.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a seven-figure digital ad buy Tuesday night featuring Mr. Johnson’s trembling voice over images of shuttered federal offices and the demolished East Wing, captioned: “When even MAGA Mike panics, you know it’s bad.”

Even some Trump loyalists acknowledged the danger. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who resigned last month but remains influential, posted on X: “Mike Johnson needs to grow a spine or get out of the chair. Trump’s fighting — the speaker’s whining.” Yet behind the bravado, Freedom Caucus members quietly circulated a letter demanding Mr. Johnson schedule votes on border wall funding and Epstein file releases before Christmas, threatening another motion to vacate if he refuses.

For Mr. Johnson, elected speaker after 15 ballots of chaos in January, Tuesday’s public fracture was a low point in a tenure defined by walking a tightrope between MAGA demands and institutional survival. Allies say he has lost 18 pounds since taking the gavel, sleeping little as he fields 3 a.m. calls from Mr. Trump. “He’s a good man in an impossible job,” said Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., the policy chair. “But good men break.”

As dusk settled over the Capitol, Mr. Johnson retreated to his office, aides barring reporters. The party he leads — once remade in Mr. Trump’s image — now faces a stark choice: steady the ship with the captain who is steering it toward the rocks, or risk mutiny nine months before the midterms. In a majority measured in single digits, panic is no longer a mood. It is arithmetic.