Are Mike Johnson and Donald Trump suddenly a match made in heaven?

Speaker Mike Johnson is making a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago this week, where he and Donald Trump will be at work to keep each other afloat.

Beset on all sides by critics, Johnson and Trump are set to unveil a piece of legislation that largely amounts to messaging — an effort to fight the already rare issue of undocumented immigrants who try to vote in US elections. Municipalities in just three states — California, Vermont and Maryland — allow noncitizens, including those who crossed the border illegally, to vote in local elections. A greater number explicitly ban the practice in their state constitutions.

What the legislation can best be summed up as is a life raft for the embattled House speaker. Johnson is facing a discharge petition leveled by Marjorie Taylor Greene and coming off the largest defection from members of his party yet: a vote by 19 House Republicans on Wednesday to kill a rule vote meant to advance the reauthorisation of America’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Friday’s meeting will be Johnson’s moment to cement his alignment with the former president and perhaps scare a few Republicans back into line — or, possibly more likely, to press Trump to rein in his loyalists like Matt Gaetz, who led Wednesday’s revolt. Gaetz is at the top of many enemy lists in the GOP caucus after he led the ouster of Kevin McCarthy last fall.

Trump, too, is in need of as many allies as he can get. He’s facing down four criminal investigations and staggering legal bills, all while he seeks the presidency for a third time. While he’s certainly in better immediate shape than Johnson, he too is seeking closer ties as the election approaches and his need for cash grows.

It will be interesting to hear what the former