Trump jury selection moves ahead as his allies threaten chaos in Congress

It is happening, again.

The line from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks has spawned a zillion memes on political Twitter, and we should expect a few more this week as Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threat to kick Mike Johnson out of the Speaker’s chair appears to be gathering steam.

As Donald Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom once again for day two of his hush money trial, some of his loudest allies on Capitol Hill are threatening to do something that could break the already strained patience of their colleagues: fire the Speaker of the House. The latest threat became real on Tuesday when Thomas Massie, a right-winger from Kentucky, signed on to Ms Greene’s lonely effort.

Readers may recall the weeks of chaos and inability to govern that prevailed in the lower chamber last fall when Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by the so-called “Gaetz Eight”, a squad of Republican malcontents who, with the support of every Democrat in the chamber, successfully passed a motion to vacate and left the chamber rudderless.

Now, the House appears to be on the brink of that same disaster as Ms Greene threatens to bring her motion to the floor if Mr Johnson allows a bill to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s onslaught to pass the chamber — which it almost certainly will if the Speaker calls a vote. Currently, the legislation is set for a vote on Friday as part of a four-stage package of supplemental national security funding.

Mr Johnson’s slim vote majority in the lower chamber means that he will need at least a few Democrats to back his speakership in order to save himself from Ms Greene’s motion. His political rivals seem more willing to extend that olive branch than they were for his predecessor, with the no. 2 Democrat on the Foreign