Mike Johnson is gambling everything — but a far-right rebellion is growing

House speaker Mike Johnson is attempting a high-wire act this week — one that could blow up in his face, cost him the job he has clung to for six months, and throw the lower chamber into chaos.

The ultra-conservative Republican is supporting a vote on Ukraine aid despite many of his party’s conservative wing being strongly against it. A conservative rebellion is growing, with a challenge to his leadership from firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who was joined on Tuesday by a second lawmaker.

Now, he’s come up with a complicated plan to pass foreign aid by breaking up the supplemental national security funding package already passed by the Senate.

Johnson will attempt to pass five bills — three dealing with military and security assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan individually. A fourth bill would deal with the divestiture or sale of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, and freeze Russian assets in the US. A fifth bill focuses on border security and includes some of the core components of a hardline immigration bill passed by the House in 2023.

For much of his speakership, Johnson has been between a rock and a hard place. He remains barely in control of one of the slimmest majorities and most ungovernable caucuses in memory, constantly battling protests and revolts from his party’s right flank, often in the face of a unified Democratic minority. His greatest asset in the immediate future may be the weariness and fatigue that has settled over the House after months of rightwing antics.

At a closed-door GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, Mr Johnson was confronted by Rep. Thomas Massie, from Kentucky. Mr Massie told the room that the speaker should resign, or be ousted from his seat.

Both Ms Greene and